


Lucid Dreams; The Shadow's Prophecy

by splatt_the_catt



Category: Undertale (Video Game), Undertale AU - Fandom, Underverse - Fandom
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canon Gay Relationship, Character Death, Childhood Trauma, Cross/Dream (Undertale AU), Emotional Manipulation, Error/Ink (Undertale AU), Fluff, Funny sometimes, M/M, Major Original Character(s), Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), No Smut, Occasional fluff, Original Character(s), Other, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 64,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24687802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/splatt_the_catt/pseuds/splatt_the_catt
Summary: Dream and Nightmare lived together happily in DreamTale, despite the humans of a nearby village constantly pestering the two of them. But everything changed the day the humans brought the brothers on a hike up the mountain.Twenty-two years later...Dream broke a promise he made long ago, prompting strange lucid dreams and night terrors that feel so real, Dream knew it couldn't be a coincidence. His husband, Cross, wants to help him find the the reason behind them and put them to an end, but he's on a different path, finding pieces of something that was meant to be destroyed and forgotten.On another side of the Multiverse, Ink struggles to cope with his horrible mistake, pushing all others away, but pulling one person closer. Meanwhile, Error attempts to redeem himself as a good person, helping Cross with his project in the hopes of catching the attention of his crush.Secrets begin to emerge from the depths as mysteries cloud Dream's mind, but could exploring his dark past lead to more harm than good?I don't claim any of the characters I use in this fic, only the OCs and story itself. If you use any of my OCs, please credit me.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	1. Prolouge (Sect. 1/8)

**Author's Note:**

> The timeline is a little hard to explain, but basically it takes place after 2016 (when Undertale was released) and stretches past our current place in time (it stretches like ten or so years into the future)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I've re-written/tweaked their outfit descriptions to better suit the story :P

The Tree of Feelings stood tall atop its hill in DreamTale, a soft breeze fluttering through its leaves. One half of the tree’s canopy was light green, with numerous shimmering gold apples reflecting the sunlight as they hung from their stems. The other half of the canopy had darker green leaves, with dark indigo apples instead of gold ones like the other side. Under the massive tree’s shadow were two skeletons, both of them fast asleep. Neither of them could have been no older than twelve. They were brothers, twin brothers to be exact.

The first brother's name was Dream. He was sitting, leaning against the tree's smooth brown bark, the other skeleton's head and shoulders resting in his lap. He wore a light blue button up shirt (although it only had three buttons, which were practically invisible) with a white trim around the shoulder sleeves, the edges that clipped together and around the bottom of the shirt. A pale yellow belt was wrapped around his waist, a little brass clasp holding the two parts of the belt together. He wore a pair of gray-blue pants and a set of worn yellow boots. Around his neck was a yellow cape, its pink clasp decorated with a white star. The cape was tucked somewhat around his exposed forearms like a blanket, an orange flame symbol was embroidered into the fabric surrounding a golden sun that was positioned in the center. His head was tilted forwards, his gold headband-like crown awkwardly sitting on his head, the two diverging buds far off center.

The other brother (in somewhat ironic contrast) was named Nightmare. He was dressed similarly, wearing a light purple button up, much like his brother’s(though his was long sleeved), with two small white crescents embroidered on each yellow coat sleeve and around the collar of his shirt. He wore purple-gray pants that were tucked into his worn purple boots, the soles grayed from use. The dark lapis clasp on his cape was undone and he also seemed to be using his light purple cape like a blanket, the symbol on the back was relatively the same, with a white crescent moon in the center of the purple flames instead of a sun. His gold headband was wider and a bit more geometrical, with a raised square piece in the middle. A crescent moon was carved into it, casting a strange shadow on his forehead. 

Their world was at peace, nothing could ruin the tranquility that surrounded them.

That was, until a young human girl came running up the hill, her straight brown hair flying wildly behind her. She had a huge grin plastered on her freckle covered face and though one of her front teeth was missing, she could not have smiled brighter. She looked like she could have been nine or ten years old.

She giddily reached the top of the hill, her red and pink striped sweater sleeves smeared with cake batter as it fluttered in the wind. Her brown shorts were just above her knees and her little brown sneakers were grass stained and worn from use. Her warm red eyes glittered in the sunlight as she noticed that the two were asleep. Her grin faltered and she thought for a moment.

She shrugged and walked over to the two brothers, leaning down to the first’s eye level and looking intently into his closed eyes. She took a deep breath and began poking his cheek lightly, “Pssst! Hey! Hey! Hey, Golden Angel! Wake up! Wake up! Hey! Wake up dummy!” she whispered, her patience wearing thin when he didn't reply. She poked him harder, frustration starting to appear on her face.

Then she felt it. As the first brother scrunched his eyes shut and yawned, she felt his aura begin flickering to life, and the girl felt the happiness growing in her SOUL.

He blinked sleepily at her and sighed, “H-hello Kinen...do you need something?”

“Yep!” Kinen nodded happily, soaking up the happiness from his aura like a sponge, “My mom said we’re going on a hike up the mountain to have a picnic! She invited a bunch of her friends and their kids and she said she wants you to come with us!” Kinen chirped excitedly.

Dream yawned again, “What about Nightmare?” he asked, “He's coming too, right?”

Kinen scrunched up her nose, looking down at Nightmare in disgust. She huffed and stood up, looking to the mountains in the near distance, “Yeah, but keep that Dark Angel freak away from me.”

Dream sighed, “Thanks Kinen.”

He had asked that the humans not use the weird names they gave the two brothers, but had it never worked so he had given up trying. He was fine with the name they had given him, but it was Nightmares that made him feel uneasy. Dark angels were usually supposed to be angels who fell from heaven and were forced to live on earth with humans. They were often praised and loved by the mortal world, but ironically the humans hated his brother quite a lot. Mostly because of his negative aura.

Like Dream's positive aura, Nightmare’s aura worked by radiating negative emotions in a bubble around him. Whereas Dream’s aura made him uncomfortably popular with the humans of the village, Nightmare’s aura made him extremely hated among them.

Dream had felt awkward from the human’s constant praise and Nightmare felt awful having insults thrown at him wherever he went. Which was why they tried to distance themselves from the villagers. But sadly, Dream knew there was no way of getting out of this one. And there was sure to be trouble if he argued with the village leader's daughter.

Kinen smiled, “Great! See you in a bit!” She stood there a moment longer before skipping off down the hill and running off back to the village.

Dream sighed, turning to look down at Nightmare. He looked so at peace, his breathing soft and rhythmic. Dream knew he was only older than his brother by a few mere minutes, but that hadn't stopped him from feeling like it was his job to be the responsible older brother.

_‘Well, I might as well get on with this. Sorry bro.’_

He shook Nightmare’s shoulder softly, keeping his voice just above a whisper, “Nightmare! C’mon, wake up...”

“Mmmmnnn...” Nightmare groaned, shifting uncomfortably, “Whuddizit...”

Dream smirked at his brother in amusement, “Well, the humans want me to go on a hike with them. And they said you could tag along with us! So come on, we gotta get going!”

“Huh?” Nightmare blinked open his eyes, staring up at his brother with a shocked smile, “Really? They said I could come with you guys?” he scrambled to sit up, messily fixing his sleeves, his purple eyes shining with joy.

“Yep!” Dream said happily, smiling at his brother.

Nightmare pumped his fist in the air “Awesome! Maybe they're actually warming up to me!”

 _‘Or they just want to be around me and they're just putting up with you because they know I won't cooperate otherwise,’_ Dream thought bitterly to himself.

“Maybe, that’d be awesome,” Dream chuckled, “It'd be nice to have someone to share all the attention with.”

Nightmare nodded, his crooked headband wobbling on his head. Dream leaned over, taking the sides of the crown in his hands and fidgeting with it until the crescent was in the middle of his forehead. Nightmare rolled his eyes, but he let his brother fuss over it anyways.

Nightmare stood up and stretched, letting out another yawn and turning back to Dream and helping his brother up. Nightmare looked up into the tree’s canopy, gazing at the dark apples on his side of the tree as sunlight gently filtered through the dark leaves. He suddenly felt a bit lightheaded, and felt himself sway slightly where he stood.

Dream took notice and looked at his brother worriedly, “You feeling ok Nightmare?”

Nightmare shook his head, waving his hand dismissively, “I-I’m fine, really. Just a headrush...” Dream looked at him skeptically. Nightmare nudged his brother playfully, “Don't worry, Dream. I'll be fine. It's just a headrush, I swear.”

Dream sighed, “Okay, if you say so.”

The brothers walked down the hill together, both casting one last glance at the tree before heading off towards the village.

There was a group of maybe thirty humans waiting for them, including Kinen who smiled giddily at the two(though it was mostly towards Dream). And it seemed Kinen was right, the village leader had invited an assortment of families and friends of hers. At least thirteen kids and seventeen adults, all of them giving Dream a warm greeting and kind smile(though Nightmare got no more a plain hello or a wave from most of them).

 _‘This picnic-hike thing is gonna be boring. Plus I think most of these humans are aura addicts,’_ he thought bitterly. Aura addicts were what Nightmare had nicknamed the villagers who tended to stick around Dream more often. _‘Whoop-de-o this is gonna suck more than fifteen leeches on an anemic crocodile,’_ Dream sighed

_‘Alright. Let's get this over with.’_


	2. Prologue Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I should be more specific about the year; In the story it is the year 2028, which is twelve years after Undertale was released.
> 
> BEFORE YOU CONTINUE:  
> This update does not count as an actual chapter or bit of the prologue, but instead is a brief intermission period in the story and timeline. Which means yes, I'm breaking the fourth wall a little bit.
> 
> Now that thats all out of the way, I hope you enjoy!~  
> 

You look for the new chapter, but it is nowhere to be seen. In its place are simply two torn pages from what looks like a textbook of plants and herbs. You decide to read it anyways.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fruits, Seeds and Berries 

Page 352

_Cinius Kirothisis (Bloodlett Berries)_

These teardrop shaped berries come from the fireleaf bush(see page 273) and is found most commonly by water sources like ponds, rivers, and streams. The berries are bright red in color with a horizontal gray or black stripe in the center, often in a wavy line or shape around the diameter of the fruit. They are said to taste sweet like raspberries, followed by a slight bitterness and then sweetness again. However, these berries should not be consumed as they are highly poisonous. Lethal doses are listed below.

** Lethal doses depending on age groups: **

Children (1-6) in order to die from poison would have to consume: 3 berries

Children (7-12) in order to die from the poison would have to consume: 6 berries

Teens (13-17) in order to die from poison would have to consume: 9 berries

Adults (18-25) in order to die from poison would have to consume: 12 berries 

Adults (26-30+) in order to die from poison would have to consume: 15 berries

** What are the symptoms of Bloodlett Berry poisoning? **

Once ingested, the poison takes 40-50 minutes to begin working and showing symptoms. Symptoms include headaches, fever, difficulty breathing, dry mouth and throat, dry cough, light sensitivity, dilated pupils, slurring of speech, dissociation from reality and surroundings, weakness in the arms and legs, losing the ability to perform magic/spells and brief periods of unconsciousness.

** Can you survive Bloodlett Berry poisoning? **

One _can_ survive if they ingest just one below the lethal doses. They will still experience symptoms but if given the right medical treatment will surely survive. The survivable doses are listed below.

Children (ages 1-6) would have to consume: 2 

Children (ages 7-12) would have to consume: 4

Teens (ages 13-17) would have to consume: 6

Adults (ages 18-25 would have to consume: 8

Adults (ages 26-30+) would have to consume: 10

** Is there a cure, and where can I find it? **

The cure can be found in ebony oak leaves, which must be chewed and swallowed by the patient. The patient must eat a total of 15 leaves, followed by 2-3 weeks of bed rest or until a majority of the symptoms subside. Ebony oaks can be identified by their distinct black leaves and silver-gray bark.

** Are there any after effects from the poisoning or treatment? **

Most symptoms will fade after the 2-3 week waiting period. However, a few symptoms can remain if the patient is not treated properly, such as sensitivity to light, weakness in the arms, legs and hands, loss of magic, dissociation and difficulty breathing. These symptoms can linger from as little as a few weeks or for up to 35 years. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You turn the second page over, expecting more writing. However, instead of more information, its blank with only a messily scrawled note in red crayon. It reads:

_**Surely this will get rid of that annoying Dark Angel! I'll sneak a few berries into some cake and give it to him as a “peace offering.” He’ll fall for it, I know he will!** _

_**I'll give it to him when the Golden Savior is asleep, and on the hike we will ditch him in the mountains.** _

_**If all goes according to plan, the Golden Savior will realize how dumb his brother is and agree to stay with us and make everyone happy forever! Surely this will make my mom see how great of a leader I'll be when I grow up!** _

_**This plan will work! I know it will!** _

Below the writing is a smear of cake batter and a few drops of red colored spots. You sniff the batter smear. It smells like vanilla. You sniff one of the red drops. It has a sickly sweet smell with a hint of bitterness. You put the paper back.

You look around for more content, but you can't find any. Looks like the author has decided to upload this instead of an actual chapter. You get the sinking feeling that the author might do this from time to time. You wonder what the author is planning.

Only time will tell.


	3. Prologue (Sect. 2/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much, just the second part of the prologue. Hope you enjoy!~  
> WARNINGS:  
> None... yet.

During the maybe thirty-minute hike to the picnic spot, Dream was trapped in a conversation with Kinen and a few of her friends. What they were talking about, Dream didn't know, and he didn't really care either. Most of what he heard were just Kinen babbling on about things that went on in the village, her friends occasionally butting in to add little tidbits of information that Dream didn't really care about much either.  All the while Nightmare lagged behind the group, trying to keep up while being shoved back by the close-knit circle of other kids around his brother. He tried different methods of trying to enter the conversation, but somehow one of them would always interrupt him at the  _ exact _ moment when he was about to speak. It was draining to say the least, not to mention his terrible headache was driving him mad. The world felt so much brighter than he remembered it being, and he felt it was so much more difficult to breathe than it should have been.

When they got to the picnic site, the village leader, Helen, announced that she and a few of her friends were going to start setting up the food and seating arrangements. The other kids who had been hanging around Dream had then dispersed, most of them being called by their parents to have a break from the chatting or going to help with the picnic setup.  Finally, Dream was alone. He looked around, his eyes setting immediately on Nightmare, who was leaning on a tree. Dream gasped excitedly and ran over to greet his brother.  “Nightmare, there you are!” he exclaimed, embracing him in a tight hug, “I finally managed to ditch the- are you feeling okay, brother?” he asked, noticing Nightmare’s half-lidded eyes and tired expression. 

Nightmare coughed, offering a weak smile and waving his hand dismissively, “I-I’m fine,” he said before uttering a dry, wheezing cough, “J-just a bit of a dry cough, nothing special.”

Dream looked at his brother skeptically and rested the back of his hand on Nightmare’s forehead, but pulled back almost instantly, “You're burning up!” he yelped.

Nightmare shook his head, regarding Dream with a weak smile, his cheeks a sickly purple hue, “I-its okay. I'm just t-tired is all...”

Dream shook his head, “No, there's obviously something wrong with you.” He took Nightmare’s arm and rested it over his shoulder, “C’mon, let's get you to a shady spot so I can work on finding some help, alright?” 

Nightmare nodded weakly, leaning most of his weight onto Dream with a loud sigh and closing his eyes. Dream nodded intently, setting his eyes on a large ebony oak a few meters from them and guiding Nightmare to the shade under its dark gray leaves. He hoped it would make his brother feel better since he knew that Nightmare favored them over most other trees.  After he settled Nightmare down into the shade of the silver-barked tree, Dream went to find Helen, who was setting up a picnic area with few other women. He cautiously walked up to them, noticing their faces lighten up as he got closer and the presence of his aura became more apparent. 

“U-um Mrs. Helen?” Dream asked, trying to ignore the strange smile one of the other ladies gave him.

Helens face lit up and she turned to him, her dark brown hair tucked into a messy bun and her smile just wide enough to unnerve him “Ah, Golden Angel! How may I be of service to you?” 

Dream blushed uncomfortably, “U-uhm, well a-actually I wanted to ask for your help w-with something...” he trailed off, embarrassed.

Helen stood up and brushed the dust off of her red dress, “Alright then! Is someone giving you trouble?” 

“No, nobodys giving me any trouble,” he reassured her, “I-I wanted your help because...well, my brother seems a bit ill and I'm just really worried that he might be-,” 

Helen scoffed in surprise, “Oh! Well y’know what,” she gestured to the other women behind her, who were still busy stacking sandwiches on a plate-tower and setting up folding tables, “I'm actually really busy here- maybe try asking somebody else.”

Dream was taken aback by how obviously she brushed him off, “W-what?! B-but he has a fever a-and a cough and I-” 

“I’m sorry dear, I'm really busy here. And if anyone can help you I would bet it's Fennec,” she suggested, pointing in the direction of a blonde teenage boy who was climbing a nearby tree, “He oughta know something about herbs, what with how often he and his folks are messing about in these woods.”

“But-” Dream began protesting again, his patience thinning. Was she  _ really _ trying to ignore him? He would have expected more from her, seeing as she was one of the most kind and noble humans he’d ever met.

Helen cut him off, “Go on now, shoo!” she scooted him in the direction of the boy in the tree and pretty soon Dream realized he didn't have a choice. 

He made his way over to the tree, hoping Fennec would be more willing to help him.

Fennec waved to Dream from a low-hanging branch he was sitting on, “Heya Angel!” he smiled brightly at Dream, his dark blue eyes glimmering in the sunlight and his messy blonde hair bouncing as he jumped off the branch and onto the soft green grass below. “Whassup?” 

His skin was tanned in every place but his face, which was a bit more pale than the rest of him. He was the same height as Dream, about four-foot-two with long legs and a lean body. He had the sleeves of his indigo-and-blue striped sweater rolled up to his shoulders, showing off the various scrapes and bruises that littered his strong arms and callused hands. His torn brown shorts hung just above his knees, which also had a various array of scrapes and bruises. 

Fennec came from a family of mountain-explorers who lived closer to the forest than most everyone else in their village, meaning that most of the time he was out messing about in the trees or wandering the expanse of the forest. And that was what he liked most about the human: because he spent so much time in the woods, he wasn't the slightest bit addicted to Dream’s aura! 

And Helen did have a point, Dream had seen Fennec making potions to sell at the market a few times before, as well as his older sister who was an expert in medicine. 

“Hey, Fennec!” Dream felt a glimmer of hope in his SOUL. Maybe he could get help after all! “Can I ask you something?”

Fennec nodded, “Yeah, sure! What can I do for ya?”

Dream internally cheered in excitement, “You know a lot about medicine and herbs, right?”

Fennec nodded proudly, “Yeah, I’m not as good as my sis, but I know enough ‘bout plants to know what not to eat!” he chuckled a bit at his own joke.

“Okay, great!” Dream felt a small bit of relief, “Look, my brother seems really ill and I'm very worried about him, would you be willing to help me?” he asked, hoping he wouldn't be shut down again.

Fennec considered it for a moment, “Your bro, huh? Well...” There was a tense silence as Dream waited for his reply.

He shrugged and gave Dream a thumbs up. “Y’know what? Sure!” 

“R-really?” Dream asked excitedly. Fennec nodded, smiling warmly. Dream smiled back, his SOUL filled with joy, “Thank you so much! Follow me, he's sitting under that tree over there,” he said, motioning for Fennec to follow him back to where Nightmare was sitting. 

Dream smiled to himself, everything was going to be okay. Fennec would tell him what was wrong with Nightmare and find him a cure. And then everything would all go back to normal. It would be so simple, barely an inconvenience. After all, it couldn't be  _ that _ bad of a sickness. 

_ ‘ ...’ _

_ ‘Right?’ _


	4. Prologue (Sect. 3/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: None... yet.  
> Anyways, heres the third part of the prologue. I hope you enjoy!~

During the time Dream had spent looking for help, Nightmare’s condition had only worsened. He felt frail and weak. He could feel himself drifting between the real world and the realm of sleep. His breathing was shallow, uneven, like someone had rubbed sandpaper down his throat and into his lungs and dried his mouth out entirely. He had given up trying to keep his eyes open, the blinding sunlight was too much for him to handle. And his headache had worsened to a long, wearing, pain behind his eyes. 

A soft nudge to his shoulder pulled him from sleep, accompanied by the soft voice of his brother, “Nightmare? Cmon, wake up. I found someone to help you.”

But Nightmare couldn't move. His arms were limp and his legs were stiff. He felt like a corpse. Dead, without a life, only consciousness and pain.

Dream nudged his shoulder again, a slight quiver in his voice, “C-cmon. O-open your eyes. P-please...”

Nightmare mustered his strength, opening his half-lidded eyes to look at his brother. He looked up at Dream, who was teary eyed and worried. Nightmare blinked sleepily, smiling shyly as he noticed the human standing behind his brother.

“Oh thank goodness!” Dream breathed a sigh of relief, hugging his brother warmly. Nightmare hissed in pain, his brother's hug felt far more crushing than it usually was. Dream pulled back instantly, eyeing his brother worriedly, “Oh no- I’m sorry! Are you okay?”

Nightmare nodded weakly, “It's... fine... who’s... he...?” He looked to the human, a blonde boy with dark blue eyes and dressed in a blue and cyan striped sweater with torn brown shorts. 

“Oh yeah,” Dream nodded, his expression shifting to cover his worry as he gestured behind him, “You remember Fennec right? Well, he might be able to help you out, since he knows a lot about medicine,” Fennec kneeled down next to Dream, looking embarrassed.

He smiled sheepishly, “I wouldn't say a lot, I just know enough. Alright, Dark- er,” he looked to Dream, “Nightmare, was it?” Dream nodded. Fennec continued, “What’re your symptoms? Like uh- how does everythin’ feel?” 

Nightmare sighed, closing his eyes and furrowed his brows together, “Well... it's hard to breathe, I can't move my arms or m-my legs,” he coughed roughly, his entire body shaking. He collected himself and continued, feeling his speech slur a little bit “Its really brriight... a-and I have a hhheadache.” 

Fennec nodded solemnly and Dream turned to him, adding, “His pupils are pretty dilated too, and he's also got a real bad fever.”

With that addition Fennec's eyes went wide. He gave Nightmare a worried look, “Hey, uh, have you eaten any fruits today?”

Nightmare though for a moment. What a strange question, “I... I think I did. I don't remember what it was though...”

Fennec shifted nervously, “Do you remember what it tasted like?”

“Y-yeah...it was sweet, then a little bitter, but then it was sweet again...” Nightmare couldn't remember what it was he had eaten. Did he have it with cake or some other pastry? Perhaps.

“Oh nonono, this aint good,” Fennec murmured.

Dream looked at him with an air of rising panic in his voice, “W-what isn't good?”

Fennec shook his head, “I don't know how, but your brother seems to have eaten Bloodlett Berries,” Dream’s eyes widened, “And that ain't good. If you eat too many of them, you'll die in a matter of hours.”

“O-oh god,” tears pricked the corners of Dream’s eyes, “I-is there a cure?”

Fennec nodded, “Yes, there is, but...”

Dream held Nightmare’s hand, trying not to squeeze it too hard, “But what?”

“...I-I don't know what it is,” he said solemnly.

Dream gasped softly,“A-are you sure?”

Fennec shook his head, “Yeah, my ‘sis never told me that part cause she said she knew I’d never eat 'em...” 

Dream’s breath hitched. This couldn't be happening. It had to be some sort of nightmare. A terrible nightmare that he would wake up from at any second.

But he couldn't. This was real. His brother was dying and there was nothing he could do about it.

~ ~ ~

Nightmare was dying. He could feel it. He weakly squeezed Dream's hand, prying open his eyes to look at his brother, “Dream...” 

Tears fell freely down his brother's face, as he cried quietly, “Y-yes Nightmare?”

“Please don't cry, it's okay.”

“N-no it's not okay!” Dream whimpered, his voice shaking, “Y-you're dying a-and-”

“Dream...listen to me, okay?” his voice was scratchy and hollow. Dream nodded, as if he could hear the pain in his brother's voice. Nightmare breathed shakily, “Can... can you do something for me?”

Dream hiccuped, “I-I dont- I dont-” He took a deep breath and nodded slowly, “Y-yeah, I can... yeah.”

“I don't want them to find me,” Nightmare said, “So I want you to hide me. Hide me somewhere they'll never find me. A place where the sun can shine, but the shadows can still crawl... somewhere I can rest... Can you do that for me?” 

Dream sobbed, wiping his tears with his wrist and looking down at the ground. He sobbed for a moment and then he was quiet, “...Okay...I...I can do that.” Nightmare smiled softly at his brother. This would hurt Dream even more, but it would be for the best.

“Umm, hey look” Fennec said, reminding them that he was still there, “I- I think I can help you guys out.”

Dream looked up, “...how?”

“I can do this thing where my elbow kinda dislodges and looks broken. It should be convincing enough to get their attention,” he extended his arm and showed how both ends pointed up unnaturally at the elbow, “Then, while they're all distracted, you two head west in that direction,” he pointed to a path that was just a few paces from them, “Follow the path and take a right at the boulder, if you keep going there should be a little-dome shaped thicket with some leaves growing on it and an opening just wide enough to crawl through at the bottom.”

Dream looked at Fennec in amazement, tears still outlined on his face, “...Th-thank you, Fennec.”

Fennec shrugged, blushing a little bit, “It's the least I can do. Now you two get a head start and wait for my signal, okay?” he stood up and offered his hand to Dream.

Dream nodded, taking Fennec's hand and standing up, “Thank you. Thank you so,  _ so _ much.” 

Fennec gave an assertive nod and dashed to a tree on the other side of the clearing, quickly climbing up its outstretched branches.  Dream bent down and picked up Nightmare, carrying him in his arms bridal-style and moving as quickly as he could to the path Fennec had pointed out. Nightmare was heavy, like he had been turned to stone before his eyes. He might as well have been, he barely moved at all.  Dream looked over to the tree Fennec was on. He had climbed high enough to survive the fall without actually breaking anything. He made eye contact with Dream and held up three fingers.

_ Three... _

_ Two... _

_ One! _

Fennec launched himself from the tree and hit the ground with a loud thud, letting out a blood curdling shriek as he bent his arm quick enough so no one could see it wasn't actually broken. In an instant everyone's attention was turned to the screaming child and people rushed to his aid immediately. 

Dream quickly darted down the path, trying to move as fast as possible while also not dropping his brother like a sack of potatoes. Soon he came to a stop, he was caught between a crossroads. On one side was a bramble patch and on the other was the boulder Fennec had pointed out for them. He quickly started down the path, casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed. 

...

But nobody came.


	5. Prologue (Sect. 4/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: A little cursing  
> Part four of the prologue, also theres a lil bit of cursing in this one. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!~

Soon, the sounds of the gathered humans had faded into the distance, enveloped by the forest’s song of bird chirps and rustling leaves. It felt as if at any moment, a grand beast would creep out from behind the trees and guide them on an amazing adventure. But that didn't happen. All that happened was a bitter silence as Dream hiked down the long, winding path in the forest. His slow-paced footsteps echoed and the sounds of leaves crushing beneath his feet filled the choking silence around them. 

Nightmare was quiet. These would truly be the last moments he had with his brother. The last time he would ever see him again. The last time he would ever feel his brother's caring touch or his crushing hugs. This was the last time they would separate from each other. And this time he wouldn't be waiting for Dream to come back.

_‘...Actually... maybe not...’_ Nightmare thought. He made a mental note of this idea... Maybe it didn't have to be the last time. 

~ ~ ~

Dream turned the corner and saw it. The thicket.

It was huge, it looked at least ten feet tall and fifteen feet wide from where he was standing. Large green leaves covered the woven branches, purple bell shaped flowers bloomed from thick green vines that snaked around the leaves and the wood. The trees surrounding it were almost in a perfect circle, their leaves parting around the thicket’s dome-shaped roof, as if they were aware that their leaves would block the gentle sunlight that shone past them and onto the thicket. At the bottom was a gap about three feet wide and three feet tall, just tall enough for him to go through if he crouched low enough. 

Dream looked down at Nightmare. His eyes were still closed and his breathing was hollow. Dream felt his arms getting weaker, he wouldn't be able to hold him like this much longer. He walked over and crouched down, squeezing his way through the entrance and into the inside of the thicket.

“Woah...” 

The inside looked like it'd been ripped right out of a fairytale, with soft sunlight filtering green through the leaves that surrounded the outside of the thicket and dark green moss on the ground that squished like a cushion beneath Dream’s feet. Smaller silver fern bushes grow in clusters all around the edges of the moss, strange blue and berries hanging from their lower branches. 

And directly across from Dream was something truly magnificent. A cluster of yellow echo buttercups, their vines and roots creeping up the side of the wall and creating a sort of flower bedding between the wall and the thicket. 

It was perfect. 

Dream carried his brother over to the flower bed and began parting the stems with his foot so Nightmare wouldn't crush them too much. When he was finished, he lay Nightmare down gently as he could, with his brother's shallow breathing only moving the flowers a little bit. Nightmare opened his eyes and looked at Dream.

His eyes. His normally shimmering purple and indigo eye-lights were pale, the light shining around them dim and flickering with his every breath. They looked sickly and frail... they already _looked_ dead. Dream bit his tongue. He couldn't start thinking like that now. Not while all his brother needed was for him to be strong. 

Nightmare smiled weakly, “Hey, Dream…” 

“Oh god!” Dream held back a choked sob, hiding his face in his hands so Nightmare wouldn't see him cry. He was struggling to keep himself and... _it_ under control. He knew intense negative emotions were not good for him. If he continued to feel like this, it would try to balance him. It would make their situation even worse. 

“...Pl...please don't cry... It'll be okay…”

“N-no! No, it wont!” Dream whimpered, “You are _dying_ a-and I-I _can't_ save you and I'm _never going to see you again,_ and _everything_ fell apart so fast and I-”

“Brother, please.” 

Dream looked up Nightmare. His expression was pained, but comforting. His smile glowed dimly at Dream, “I know you're scared, but it's going to be okay. You'll figure it out, I know you will,” he clenched his teeth in pain, hissing quietly as he hugged his stomach. “U-ugh…but, right now, I-I just want you to promise me something, okay?”

“Anything! I-I'll do anything...” Dream said, desperately trying to hide the despair in his voice. 

Nightmare’s expression relaxed and he breathed out, closing his eyes as he began, “Once I'm... Once I'm gone, don't let them see you. Follow them from behind until they get back home... Once you’re there, go to the tree and take one of my apples and one of yours,” he hesitated for a moment and then added, “Then I... I want you to initiate Plan A.” Dream looked at his brother in dismay. They had talked about it before, but only as an idea for how to leave the humans and stay with the tree. And it was supposed to stay like that. An idea. A stupid idea not to be taken as a serious option for them. “As soon as the plan is in motion, the rest of your apples will die,” Nightmare coughed roughly, “Then, I want you to use your magic and begin the spell. You remember the symbols right?”

“Y-yes, I think so,” Dream said shakily. Was Nightmare really serious about this? “It's two fires inside of a star, right?

“No, i-it's two balls of fiery energy, one... _ugh_... with a sun in the center and the other with a moon... Draw a circle around them and put... d-damnit... put a star at the bottom between them.” Nightmare clenched his eyes shut and hissed again, “Then put your hand in the middle of the circle and- _nngh_... recite the spell.”

“B-but the spell requires both of us to be there!” Dream exclaimed, “I won't be able to do it without you!” he took Nightmares hand, feeling himself begin to lose his control over _it._ The burning sensation tickled the back of his throat, threatening to slink up through him and out of his mouth. 

Nightmare put his hand on top of Dream's, “You’ll... you’ll have to... it’ll work, I know it will...” he sighed and continued, “Once you're through, go make a life for yourself, without _them_ or... me in it.”

“No...!” Dream bit back a sob. He couldn't do that. Live his life without Nightmare? It would be impossible. They had always been together. For as long as they could remember, it was always just the two of them. That was how it was _supposed_ to be. The both of them together, keeping the balance. 

Nightmare clenched his teeth and leaned over in pain. It was getting worse. “You can do it okay? I know you can...Once you're all grown up and ... _uhhgh_...you have it all figured out... _aghh_... Find this place and come back. Tell me about what's changed... about everything that happened to you. I know I wont be here, but just... _nnnngh_... promise not to forget about me, okay?”

Dream gasped softly. “Forget about you? How could I...” 

Nightmare smiled, “Just... don't forget, okay?”

“I-I won't!” Dream stammered, “I-I'll never forget you.”

“Promise?”

“I... I promise.” 

“And brothers don't break promises, right?”

“Brothers don't break promises.” 


	6. Prologue (Sect. 5/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: Extreme Violence and Gore  
> Umm... I hope you enjoy?  
> Edit: ive re-written/tweaked Lucid's description. Le trash man looks much more classy now, wouldn't you agree?

Dream stood up and took a step backwards towards the entrance. This was it. It was time to say goodbye. He still couldn't help but let the tears roll down his cheeks.

Nightmare smiled softly, he could already feel the grief beginning to emanate off of his brother, “Goodbye Dream.” 

Dream sniffled, wiping his tears on his sleeve and weakly smiling back,“G-goodbye Nightmare. I-I love you.” 

Nightmare let out a soft sigh, his eyes flickering dim again, “I love you too, brother.” 

Both brothers shared the silence for a moment. Oh, how they wished they could stay that way forever. But they couldn't. Neither Dream nor Nightmare wished for him to watch his brother dust before his eyes. 

Dream broke eye contact, turned around and crouched through the entrance and began to run away. He ran and he ran, his heavy footsteps echoing through the empty forest as he thundered back down the path. 

He ran so the tears would dry before they hit the ground. 

He ran so the world around him would become a blur. 

He ran so the truth wouldn't catch up to him.

...

_But nobody can run forever._

Dream slowed to a stop and collapsed onto his knees, letting out choked sobs as pain and sorrow shot through his chest like freezing spikes of ice. He shivered in despair as the reality began to sink in.

Nightmare was dead. Nothing would ever be the same again. He’d never hear his brothers laugh or take naps with him under the tree or even just... see him smile again. Dream coughed and spat out a few drops of shining gold liquid. He fought back through his tears, trying his best to resist its advances. But it was no use, he felt the vile substance creeping up his throat. His aura was fighting back. And it was winning.

 _‘No!’_ he thought _‘Not now, please! Let me have this moment to grieve!’_ Dream cursed silently and clutched his stomach. He wouldn't give up. But it wouldn't either. It pushed him further, forcing its shimmering yellow ooze out from his mouth and onto the ground. He swallowed hard again, trying to keep it down. _‘Stop! I just need a moment! Just... just this once.’_

Dreams nausea subsided and he suddenly felt an incredible force begin to resonate nearby in the trees. It was a strange presence, radiating positive feelings with devious intent.

**“Fine then, but it's not like anyone else will miss him.”**

Dreams head snapped up. “What?! W-whos there?!” he shouted, “What did you say about my brother?!” He hastily got to his feet, wiping the excess dribble from his mouth and blinking away tears as newly seeded fear began to grow inside him.

**“Greetings my dear, I am Lucid,** **_”_ ** The figure took a step out from behind the shadows of the trees, their body slightly transparent with a soft golden glow around their figure. They were taller than Dream, towering almost three feet over him. Lucid chuckled, **“Why did you make me introduce myself? It's rude to act like you don't know who I am.”**

Lucid looked like him but... wrong. Different. Instead of Dream’s soft golden yellow eyes, Lucid had blazing orange eyelights. His teeth seemed normal, but his canines were sharper, almost fang-like. He wore a burnt orange overcoat(with a blue-gray shirt underneath) along with claret-colored pants and black high top boots. He wore orange fingerless gloves, a white solar eclipse symbol embroidered on each hand. His fingertips were sharp like claws and curled inwards at the tips. On his back were a set of amber wings, the edges lined with small golden flames. Instead of the yellow cape that Dream wore, Lucid wore what looked like a king's cape,with blood red fabric and edges lined with white fur that had small black feathers tucked into some parts of it. Most strange of all, tucked neatly around his feet was a long, slender lion's tail, the tip adorned with a small flickering fire. 

“W-who are you?!” Dream said summoning a small light arrow and clutching it tightly in his hand. He held it in front of him like a sword and tried his best to appear unafraid.

Lucid chuckled softly **“Hmhm... Darling, I** ** _am_** **you.”** he took another step towards Dream and speaking in a lower tone, **“I am everything you can be. Everything** **you** **_want_** **to be.”**

“W-what…?” Dream took a step back in fear, “You’re not me! Y-you're- you’re-” he swallowed, “You're e-evil!”

**“I am better than you in every way,”** Lucid snapped, **“I am more powerful than you. Faster, stronger, better.”** Lucid walked in a slow circle around him, his tail flicking around the edges of his blood red cape, **“I am what you could become if you give in to your true power.”**

“What do you...” he trailed off. He knew what it was. He dropped his arrow in shock and it hit the hard dirt path with a clatter, “Y-you’re…”

**“That’s right, darling. I am the spirit of your little “aura." And I am what you could achieve if you allow yourself to become one with it,”** he said, hissing cold breath on his neck and making Dream shiver, **“If you merge with me, I will make you the most powerful being in the** **_entire Multiverse..._ ** **We could do** **_anything_ ** **we want and** **_nobody_ ** **could stand in our way. We could even start by getting rid of** **_them,”_ ** Lucid waved a hand and conjured an image of the humans in the air, leaning over Dream’s right shoulder smiling devilishly in the corner of his vision, **“They are all** **_selfish._ ** **They don’t deserve us.”** The image cycled through the humans one by one through those who had come with them on the hike. Helen, Markus, Noelle, Kris, Chase, Kate, Kinen. It continued for a moment before resting on the image of Fennec, who smiled nervously.

Dream felt a spike of anger, “Not Fennec! Fennec is-”

**“** **_Fennec_ ** **is a traitor,”** Lucid hissed, baring his sharp white teeth, **“He** **_lied_ ** **to us.”** he rested his hand on Dream’s shoulder, **“He said he could help us, but he was** **_useless.”_ **

“Fennec distracted the other humans so we could-” Dream turned to sneer at it.

**“** ** _Fennec,_** **wanted the attention.”** Lucid sneered back, **“Didn't you see the way he screamed? That little brat _loved_ the attention. He is no better than the rest of them.” **he chuckled softly, **“But we can change that...** ** _We_** **can cleanse this world of their** ** _selfishness._** **_We_** **can avenge your brother's death and show them what true** ** _power_** **we wield! Destroy them all! AHAHAHA!!”** he laughed crazily before composing himself and slinking out from behind and stood before him, like a funhouse mirror image of Dream, **“...That is, of course, if you accept my offer...”** Lucid offered his hand with a sly smile, **“What do you say, Dream? Will you set me free and help me purge them from this world?”**

Time stood still. The forest grew quiet as Dream considered Lucid’s offer. The humans hadn’t wanted to help but... they didn't _all_ deserve to die. Nightmare said he wanted him to live a life without them. Would that apply to this? 

_‘No, he wouldn't want me to kill them. He didn't hate them as much as I do.’_ Dream argued to himself. 

_‘But he knew they didn't like him. They bullied him- I know they did! They thought I wouldn't notice if they did it when I wasn't around, but I did! He told me!’_ Dream felt rage begin to flicker inside of him, _‘They only wanted my presence without his... Maybe they do deserve to…’_ he considered it for a moment.

_‘No...I don't want to hurt anybody! Some of them might have hurt Nightmare, but I'm not going to go on a murder spree just because of that.’_

He took a deep breath, “...N-no.”

**_“No?”_ ** Lucid’s expression shifted to anger for a brief moment before turning into a soft smile as his voice became a creepy mixture of nurturing and intimidating, **“Hmhmhmhmahahahaha... Wow...”** Lucid took a step towards Dream and caressed his cheek with his clawed hand, **“Oh darling, you've made a terrible** **_mistake..._ ** **And I** **_know_ ** **you're not going to like what happens next...”** he swiftly pulled his hand back, making four small scratches on Dream’s cheek.

Dream shut his eyes and hissed in pain, clutching the scratches, “Ow! What do you-” But when he opened his eyes, Lucid was gone. “W-wait! Lucid! Come back! What do you-” Dream was interrupted by a loud argument nearby that was rising in volume. 

“HOW COULD YOU LOSE HER?! I TRUSTED YOU, SAMUEL!!”

“WELL IT'S NOT _MY_ FAULT YOUR LITTLE BRAT DECIDED TO WANDER OFF! BESIDES, IT'S NOT LIKE ANY SELF RESPECTING MONSTER IN THESE WOODS WOULD ACTUALLY WANT TO EAT THAT ROTTEN LITTLE BITCH!”

_“GASP!_ HOW _DARE_ YOU!!”

Dream gasped quietly. _‘Oh no.’_ He began to race towards the sound, his fears quickly growing louder in his mind along with the thudding sound of his feet against the hard dirt path.

He quickly found the source of the sound and peeked out from behind a tree. The humans had all broken out into fights, arguing with each other with their weapons drawn. In one group three sisters were wrestling on the ground, clawing at each other's eyes. In another, a girl shouted at her husband, accusing him of cheating on her. In another, two young brothers shouted at each other about who their parents loved more, both attempting to hit the other with glowing emerald swords. In another group, two couples threatened their other halves with glowing swords and axes. The once peaceful picnic area had become a battlefield of families and lovers. He looked at them all in horror, but one group caught his eye. He gasped.

Three young teens towered over a shivering Fennec, who had been pushed to his knees on the ground with tears falling down from his eyes. They held their weapons menacingly as they glared down at him. 

Fennec looked up at them, his dark blue eyes wide in fear, “G-guys? What's gotten into you? C-c'mon w-what're we f-fighting about?” One of the other teens, a girl with dark brown hair and orange eyes, stabbed the side of Fennec's sweater with her sword, pinning him to the ground. Fennec shrieked in terror and looked around wildly for an escape.

His eyes locked onto Dreams. He stared at him with a pleading gaze and a look of terror, “Please... help me,” he mouthed, tears rolling down his face.

Dream took a small step back. Surely they wouldn't _kill_ Fennec. 

_‘Right?’_ He looked at the other humans who were fighting, several bodies already strewn about the bloodied green field. He couldn't leave Fennec to die- he had been the only person who had tried to help. But he couldn't risk his own life by being seen.

...

“I... I'm sorry” he mouthed back. Fennec's eyes grew wider in shock as Dream turned and fled back down the path. 

~ ~ ~

He stared at the spot where the so called "Golden Angel" had stood only moments before. He looked back to his friends who stood above him, realizing now that there was no escape, “P-please you guys, I-I don’t wanna die!” he pleaded.

One of the teens, a boy with dark blonde hair and cyan eyes raised his glowing cyan spear above Fennec's right eye. He glared down at Fennec as he held his arm higher to strike. 

“W-wait!” Fennec stammered, realizing what his friend was about to do, “Jackson p-please don’t-”

**_SQUELCH!_ **

Fennec shrieked in agonizing pain, writhing on the ground as his friend ripped his eye out with his spear, its entrails flying behind it like a sick, twisted kite. Sam pulled her sword’s blade out from his sweater, allowing him to double over and clutch his now empty eye socket in agony. He screeched as the blood ran down his face and dripped through his hands. He could barely see through the tears that mixed with blood that flowed from his wound. 

Fennec heard a sickly squelching sound as Jackson pulled his eye off the tip of his spear and dropped it onto the ground in front of him. He stared at it in horror and reached over with a shaking hand to pick it up. He held it gently in the palm of his hand, the blood flowing down his face and dripping back onto the eye that stared back at him. He looked up at his friends in horror, the tears in his right eye catching the sunlight and flashing a bright light in his eyes, “W-why...?” None of them looked him in the eye. 

His friend Abby, a girl with brown hair and purple eyes walked around the back of him, dragging her shining violet axe in the dirt as she went. Fennec sobbed loudly as he heard her pull her axe up from the dirt and raise it high above her head. He saw her shadow, the axe was hanging in the air over his neck.

“P-please...”

**_CRACK!_ **

~ ~ ~

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He stared down at his body in silent despair. 

**“Pity he did not rescue you,”** said the angel beside him, **“I suppose he didn’t like you after all...”**

He watched his friends disperse, going to pick fights with the other humans on the battlefield. He looked back to his body and watched as his dark blue SOUL floated above him and glowed dimly in the daylight.

**“But** ** _I_** **_like you,_** **darling. And I can help you,”** the angel said, **“I can give you a new life-** ** _bring you back..._** **You may lose some of your memories, but I promise you, one day, you** ** _will_** **get your revenge.”**

He looked at the angel. The angel with the fiery wings. The angel with the blazing orange eyes. The angel with clawed fingertips and the long, slender lion's tail. 

**“So, my dear,”** the angel offered its hand to him, **“do we have a deal?”**

He stood still for a moment and nodded. He took the angel's hand and shook it firmly. The angel smiled, **“Good choice, darling. You won't regret this.”**

It waved its other hand and used magic to pick up his eye off of the ground. It then looked in the grass for a moment before using its magic again to pick up a tiny black centipede and a brown praying mantis. It held ripped the arms from the mantis and a few from the centipede and merged the limbs with the eye, the mantis’ arms near the eyeball and the legs of the centipede attaching to the eyes entrails in two places, one set of two near the top and another set of four at the bottom. The angel's magic flowed through the vessel and it grew to the size of a small dog and began to twitch. It slowly came to life, the legs clicking together as it squirmed and made wet hissing sounds. 

The angel turned back to him, **“This... is your body. Do you accept it?”**

He looked at the eyeball-creature for a moment. He nodded. 

The angel smiled, **“Excellent. Truly... excellent,”** the angel held his soul with blue magic and held it in front of the vessel, **“I shall give you a new name, and a new purpose.”** the angel's eyes glowed brighter.

 **“Your name is Paranoia,”** it said, bringing his soul closer to the vessel, **“And with your presence you bring the feeling of being watched.”** The angel settled his soul in the vessel and his vision was filled with a bright flash of light.

**“Go forth, my child! Go forth into the shadows of this forest until you can fulfill your destiny!”**

He fell to the ground and blinked. He looked down at his arms. He had a set of clawed pincer and two insectoid arms. He looked up at the angel. It smiled down at him. He nodded solemnly and began to quickly crawl away into the forest, down the familiar paths his family had taught him.

...

Family? No, he didn't have a family. He was a Dark Spirit of the forest. 

And he was only the first.

  
  
  
  
  



	7. Prologue (Sect. 6/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: Extreme Violence and Gore (yes, again)  
> Things sure are amping up huh? Well, I hope you guys enjoy nonetheless!  
> (btw, thank y'all so much for for all the reads and kudos, it means a lot to me that people are enjoying reading my story almost as much as I am writing it)

Dream fled, hearing Fennec’s screams of agony from behind him, they were shrill and dripping with betrayal and sorrow. He stopped running. No, he couldn't leave him behind. Fennec had tried too hard to help him and Nightmare for him to abandon him because he was scared of being seen. He turned and ran back, hoping he could get there fast enough to help. Thankfully, he had not gone far and it only took a few seconds to find the clearing again. He scrambled through the bushes near where he had seen Fennec, still hidden by the shadows of the thick canopy overhead. He took a few steps to get a better view, hoping he could scope out an easy way out for him and Fennec. 

Instead, he saw a horrible scene unravelling before him. 

From where he was standing, he saw Fennec kneeled on the ground, a river of blood gushing from his empty eye socket. His eye was skewered on the tip of the brown-haired boy’s cyan spear, the glowing blade having pierced right through the center of Fennec's eye, the entrails hanging loosely from it. Fennec was screaming and clutching his face in pain, tears rolling down from his other eye and mixing into the ever-growing puddle of blood on the ground. 

Dream was frozen in fear. He wanted to move, he really did. But his body wouldn't let him. His legs were nailed to the ground, his arms were stiff, and his hands wouldn't summon his weapons. He only stood and watched with wide eyes and mouth agape in horror as he watched the scene unfold further before his eyes.

The brown haired boy reached and pulled Fennec's eye from the tip of the spear, a sick squelching sound coming from it as he did. The boy dropped it to the ground in front of Fennec, it hit the dirt with a wet squish. Fennec opened his eye and stared at it on the ground. After a second he shakily reached out and picked it up, cradling it in the palm of his hand as it started back up at him. He looked up at the other kids. He said something, Dream couldn't hear it very well, but it sounded like, “Please.” The other humans did not respond. Fennec looked back down at the ground, tears falling down his face as he sobbed again.

The girl with bushy brown hair and purple eyes walked around the back of Fennec, dragging her heavy violet axe in the dirt behind her. She stood still for a moment before lifting the axe high into the air, aiming for Fennec's exposed neck. 

Dream had to act fast. He had to move, to shout, to do something- _anything-_ to save Fennec. But he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried to. He was a statue, watching helplessly as the girl brought the axe down on Fennec’s neck.

Blood sprayed into the air, a long gash appearing in Fennec's neck as he screamed in agony. The girl lifted the axe into the air again, eyeing Fennec’s convulsing form in annoyance. She brought it down again and Fennec shrieked louder as a short, loud crack rang out and the gash became wider, blood continuing to pour from the wound and seeping into Fennec's blue sweater, turning it a grim purple.

The girl lifted her axe again, eyeing Fennec as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and into the scarlet puddle below him. She raised it high into the air again and swung it down with brute force, another wet cracking sound ringing out as Fennec’s pained screams became fainter and his movements became more sluggish. His fingers and feet had begun twitching on the ground as more of the nerves in his neck were severed. He was slumped over, with not enough strength to keep his head up, his screams turning to a faint gurgle as his throat was soaked in blood. The girl hefted the axe into the air one last time, grasping the handle firmly with both hands as she prepared to strike the final blow. 

_‘Move! Move Dream, move!! Move now! I can't move- Why am I not moving?! Why can't I move?! Why won't my body move?! I have to help him! I want to help him, I have to move!’_

**_‘See, darling? I told you you wouldn't like what happens next.’_** Lucid’s voice echoed in his mind, **_‘I gave you a chance and you turned me down. You should have listened to me. I gave you a chance to make things right. To correct my actions.’_** Lucid sighed, **_‘...But you had to be selfish. Now look at what has happened. Look at what you've done. Look at what you've done to him.’_**

The girl delivered the final blow to Fennec's neck and he uttered one last faint blood-drowned scream. The girl hefted her axe back onto her shoulder and watched as his head slipped off of his severed neck and hit the ground with a sickening thud, a thin river of blood trickling from the inside of it. Fennec’s body leaned to the left, swaying slightly for a moment before falling over and hitting the ground with a soft thump. 

Nausea churned in Dream’s stomach as the third girl with the glowing yellow sword nudged the head with the tip of her blade and Fennec's dead face rolled to face him, his one, dead eye rolling upwards in its socket and his jaw hanging open loosely. The girl scoffed at it in annoyance, as if it was a pesky raccoon and not her dear friend’s head. The other kids glared at each other one last time before dispersing back onto the battlefield. 

**_‘You abandoned him. And when you realized your mistake you could not bring yourself to help him... You selfish monster.'_** Lucid hissed the last word, his tone dripping in acid. ** _'Now look at him, because of your inaction, he died. He's dead and it's all your fault.’_**

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘He's dead and it's all your fault.’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘It's all your fault!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

**_‘IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!’_ **

The words blared loudly in his mind, shouting, screaming, louder and _louder,_ echoing over each other with every passing moment. He shut his eyes and covered where his ears would be in a futile attempt to block them out. His SOUL pounded harder and harder in his chest. Dream's body took a step back without him telling it to. He looked down at his feet in horror as his body began walking backwards involuntarily. 

_‘What's- whats happening?!’_ Dream's mind cried as his body turned him around and continued to walk away from the clearing, _‘What's happening to me?!’_

**_‘You're running away, sweetheart, just like you've always done!’_ ** Lucid yelled, **_‘Running away from your problems! From your SINS!’_ **Before he knew it, Dream was running back down the mountain trail.

_‘W-what?! No, I’m- I'm not the one doing this!’_

**_‘Then who else could it be?’_ ** _Lucid asked, in a snarky condescending tone,_ **_‘It certainly isn't me, darling.’_ **

Something about the way that Lucid's voice said that... ‘ _Wait… It_ is _you! Stop this! Let go of me!’_ Dream thought, attempting to break free of Lucid’s control over his body.

**_‘Fine then!’_ ** Lucid’s control vanished and Dream stumbled to a stop at the forest's edge. **_‘But you_ ** **will** **_fuse with me one way or another!’_ **

Suddenly, Dream felt a strange pulling sensation from his SOUL, tugging towards the forest behind him. It was if someone was tearing a piece off of him slowly, but somehow, painlessly. He turned around and saw Lucid’s silhouettes stalking back down the dark path and into the trees, his wings glowing menacingly behind him. 

He turned and extended a wing to cast a look back at Dream over his shoulder, his eyes glinting evilly. **“You will fuse with me one day, you cannot resist your potential forever.”** He said, a creepy grin spreading across his face and his eyes growing wide and power hungry, **“And when I do... ahahahahahaHAHAHAHA!"** Lucid's crazed laughter echoed through the trees. He turned back towards the forest, spreading both wings as his silhouette began to glow a dark gray, **"Well, hmhm! Let’s just say you an I are going to have** ** _lots_** **of** **fun!”**

And with that he vanished, leaving nothing behind but a shimmering cloud of dark smoke and a fiery golden feather on the pathway.


	8. Prologue (Sect. 7/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: none  
> Oopsie dopsie I'm a day late again (I slept in yesterday and forgot lol) Whatever, heres the new part of the prologue!  
> A/N: Things written in Latin will be in italics because I cant trust google translate not to mess it up :p  
> Translation for a few words if anyone is interested: https://blogs.transparent.com/latin/latin-profanity-how-to-swear-in-latin/  
> I hope you enjoy!

Dream ran as fast as he could to the tree, his feet thudding on the grassy plains as the sun passed overhead. When he got there, it was eerily quiet. He’d become used to seeing Nightmare sitting under the tree waiting for him when he came back from an excursion to the village. But now it was like a ghost town of memories, all the fun times they had spent there growing up feeling like a whisper from the past. 

On either side of the tree were two apples on low hanging branches, the left with golden yellow apples and on the right, dark indigo ones. Dream took a deep breath and walked over to his side. He reached up and pulled an apple off the stem of its low hanging branch, just like he had done so many times before. It was warm and firm in his hand after spending most of the day in the sun.

He took a step back and turned to look at the other apple. He'd never taken an apple from Nightmare’s side before. Nor had Nightmare ever wanted to take one from his. Neither of them could ever figure out what it was, but they both just got a feeling that if they did, something terrible would happen. 

Time to find out what that something was.

He held his apple in his left hand and slowly made his way over to the low hanging fruit. It's dark skin gleamed in the sunlight, as if beckoning to him. He hesitantly reached out, but pulled his hand back as soon as it got close, a feeling of dread seeping into his fingertips. 

_ ‘Do it.’ _ his mind told him

_ 'Don't do it.' _ the feeling said back.

_ ‘Do it.’ _ His mind argued.

_ 'Don't do it.' _ the feeling said again. 

_ ‘Do it.’ _ He began psyching himself up for it.

_ 'Don't-' _

_ ‘...I did it.’ _

He looked down at the apple in his hand. It shimmered up at him cheerfully. He looked at the golden apple in his other hand. It shone happily in the light. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the other apples on his side of the tree’s branches.

The golden apples were shriveling up and turning gray, spots of mold beginning to appear and grow on their once smooth surfaces. It was terrifying to Dream. Up until today, his entire existence had consisted of spending time with Nightmare, putting up with the humans, and caring for the apples on his side of the tree(along with the tree itself). To see the fruits he had worked so hard to protect withering before his very eyes, it filled him with a horrible, creeping anxiety. 

He looked at Nightmare’s apples. They were completely unaffected, hanging happily from their stems and swaying slightly in the wind. Dream felt a pang of jealousy in his SOUL. Why did only  _ his _ apples have to die? Why not Nightmare’s too? What would have happened if Nightmare had taken one of his? Would they wither and die like his did, or would they just spread like a disease, infecting the other apples with their negativity until none remained? Dream shook his head. He didn't have time to worry about “what ifs” or “whys”. He had to perform the ritual and recite the spell.

He walked back to the base of the tree and ran his fingers over the marks and carvings he and his brother had made in its soft bark. A few lines chiseled into the bark to show how much they'd grown over the years, symbols for different spells they had learned scrawled in various colors of chalk, little notes, reminders and ideas, the names of different humans they could trust, the words for certain spells, all of it written in Latin.

They had always known the Language of Magic, it was the first language the both of them had both spoken in and written in. They weren't even aware that no one else could understand them until the humans had settled a village about five and a half years ago. Then, surprise! They were enlightened to a reality full of different dialects that existed. When the humans had first made contact, both groups had no idea what the other was saying. So, long story short, it was easier for the two of them to learn how to read and speak English rather than teaching an entire town of people how to understand Latin. 

At first they had thought that the spells they knew wouldn't work unless they were spoken in Latin, since up until that point here wasn't anything else to do it in. However, after a few tries they learned that it didn't really matter what language the spell was spoken in, just that it was done right. Dream sighed and picked up a piece of small white chalk nestled between the roots and began drawing the symbols on the bark as he remembered them. 

One fire emblem on the left with a sun in the center to symbolize him, and another fire emblem with a crescent moon in the center to symbolize Nightmare. He traced a larger circle around both of them with the chalk, then he drew a five-sided star on the bottom between the two of them and filled it in with the chalk, just like they'd discussed. When he finished, he put his hand above the two emblems and began embedding them with small amounts of magic from his reserves, making them glow faintly. When he was done he took a step back and took a deep breath and stood on the left in front of the sun fire emblem. 

Dream put the chalk down and watched as the markings began to glow brighter and brighter. The ritual had begun and magic lifted him into the air as if he was weightless. Then the golden apple floated out of his hand and began hovering in front of him. The indigo apple floated out of his other hand and did the same on the right, hovering in place at roughly the same spot its yellow counterpart did. 

There was a pause for a moment, as if the spell was confused as to why Nightmare wasn't there. Dream fiddled with his hands nervously. The next part of the ritual was going to be so strange without Nightmare there, since  _ both _ of them were supposed to absorb each apple so that they would become strong enough to pass through the portal that would appear. 

Dream exhaled. There was no point stalling any longer. He took a deep breath and began to recite the words to The Spell of Evadere.

_ “Forgive us Mother, the time has come...” _ he began,  _ “They've gone too far, we are now done.” _ This was it, there was no going back now.

_ “We ask you only for an escape... A way to another world, away from this place,”  _ Dream’s SOUL appeared and hovered in front of him. Unlike most monster SOULs, his wasn't an upside down white heart, but instead a flickering ball of pastel yellow flames with a small sun symbol in the center, all of it radiating positive feelings. It flickered where it was, only a few mere inches away from the apple. 

_ “As we pass through the gates, don't seal us away... We hope to come back, perhaps soon, or in many a day,” _ His soul hovered closer to the apple, glowing brighter and it came closer and closer to it.

_ “In the new world, give us full control over our weapons, our attacks, and our magic, so great,”  _ The apple and his soul began fusing, the flames enveloping the small fruit and covering its surface, its magic seeping into the apple slowly. Dream groaned and clenched his eyes shut in discomfort. His very  _ life force _ was going into a little  _ apple _ for god's sake.  _ “Nnngh...deodamnatus! ...A-and offer us y-your guidance in the w-worlds we await.” _

Dream grit his teeth, it was growing more and more painful by the second,  _ “A-ah... A-and for o-others who m-may come, who m-may be unf-familiar and strange...u-ugh- filius canis! ...Disguise the t-tree and create another g-guardian to test them, to be sure they m-may remain,” _ he chided himself silently for cursing and continued.

_ “I-if they pass, release the veil and c-cause them a small pain...” _ Dream pried his eyes open, it was almost over now. The apple had begun to glow the same color as the flames, which were growing dimmer and dimmer as they flickered weakly, “ _ And i-if they do not, send th-them back to w-whence they came… faex!” _ he muttered the last part, hoping the spell wouldn't pick up on his cursing. 

_ “In the new world, shield us of the wicked spirits inside...” _ A picture of Lucid flashed in his mind. God, even as a memory, his smile was annoying. Dream groaned and shifted again as the last of his SOUL’s flame seeped into the apple, which now glowed a soft yellow color. Just one more line, _ “T-their power, their voices, a-and all of their lies...” _

_ “We will return, this much is true...” _ The chalk began to glow brighter and brighter until the pigments lifted off of the bark and began swirling into a glowing white vortex. It grew bigger, a bright white light shining in from the other side. He looked to the other apple. It had completely vanished. He was slowly set back down on the soft green grass, and his newly formed SOUL flickered back to its new home inside his ribcage. He took a deep breath and recited the last line of the spell,  _ “But when we must, it is up to you.” _

The portal glowed brightly, beckoning to him. Dream took a step forward and hesitated. 

_ ‘I-its okay Dream, you can do this. Breathe in for four seconds...’ _ he took a deep breath,  _ ‘Hold it for seven seconds...’ _ he held his breath and counted to seven,  _ ‘Now breathe out for eight...’ _ he exhaled.

Dream looked into the portal. It was just a big bright light, nothing too scary,  _ ‘...Okay, Dream, just go into the light! ...Wait no, not like that!’ _ He metally facepalmed.  _ ‘This is no time to be stupid... *sigh* okay…’ _

_ Goodbye village, I'm sorry your some of your people had to be so awful…’ _

_ ‘Goodbye Fennec, I'm sorry I couldn't save you…’  _

_ ‘Goodbye Tree of Feelings, I'm sorry we failed you...’ _

_ ‘...Goodbye Nightmare, I'm sorry I couldn't find you a cure. I'll come back one day, I promise.’ _

  
  
  


_ ‘And brothers don't break promises.’ _

  
  
  
  



	9. Prologue (Sect. 8/8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNIGNS: none  
> Hey everyone! This is that last part of the prologue and ngl its pretty long. Now, just so theres no nasty surprises, I'll warn you all that there IS a bit of Drink angst, but there is also some Cream fluff (which, lets be honest, is the reason why most ppl are probably here). Now, without further adew, lez git on widit!!

Dream was on his back, floating in an empty space. He felt nothing around him, only the warm air and the feeling of weightlessness. His eyes fluttered open. Where was he?

He was in a small clearing in what he assumed to be the center of whatever room he was in, papers on every side of him, all tied to strings and hanging from an orange and yellow dome-shaped ceiling. There were no walls, only vast expanses of papers hanging from their springs, all of them with different names, most were written in English, but others were in languages he did not recognize. He struggled to sit up, the feeling of nothing holding him to the ground was strange and uncomfortable.

Was this the other world? It was so empty, where was everybody? "Hello?" he called out, "Is anyone here?" he hovered in silence for a moment. No response.

Dream turned in the air and looked down. It was strange, he couldn't see much other than a floor the same color as the rest of the place. He sighed and tried to drift in the direction of a nearby hanging paper.

When he got in closer range he took the paper in his hand and looked at it. It had a strange symbol in the center, two arrows, one red and the other blue, both pointing in opposite directions from the other. There was a name written above them.

"UnderSwap?" he read aloud, "What does that mean?"

"Well everything's been swapped, duh!" an unfamiliar voice replied cheerily.

"H-huh?" Dream yelped looking around for the source of the voice, "Who's-"

"Hiya!"

Someone hovered above him, leaning over his head and looking at him upside down. He was a skeleton just like Dream, but he was different. He had different colored eye-lights, one was a perky blue circle and the other a bright yellow star. The other skeleton smiled at him, he had a cute little black splash mark on his left cheek that stood out against his white bones. He also wore a light brown scarf, but Dream couldn't see much else, since, again, the stranger was leaning over him from above.

"You're new, oooh that's always exciting!" he said cheerfully, "I like your crown thingy, can I touch it?" he asked, reaching for Dream's headband with a tan gloved hand(well technically fingerless-gloved hand, it was a dark tan color).

"W-what?" Dream said, blushing a little in surprise, "Hey! No! Cut that out!" Dream batted his hand away and wriggled in the air so he could look up at the stranger.

"Aw c'mon!" said the stranger. He was lying in a relaxed position, his head propped by one hand and his legs crossed lazily, "Why not? It's so pretty and shiny!"

Dream now noticed his scarf faded into a lighter beige at the end. He had a giant paintbrush attached to his back like a sword, its fibers looked wet with black paint, but nothing seemed to drip from it. He had a lighter blue jacket tied around his waist, white fluff poking out from around the edges of the sleeves and the hood. There was also a strange gray sash attached to his chest with a collection of multi-colored vials attached to it, along with two mechanical pencils and an eraser tied to the bottom. He wore a brownish long sleeve shirt striped with a weird set of light blue stripes on the sleeves and a pair of brown overalls clipped to the hem of his ginger-brown shorts. What looked like the sleeves of a beige T-shirt stuck out from under his scarf, just above his longer sleeves with a blue triangle on each shoulder. He had small brown boots, the tip of the toes colored with scribbles of yellow and brown with rectangular blue patches on the heel. He looked to be about the same age as Dream, maybe a little older. He seemed relaxed, as well as excited and intrigued.

"So," he said, his smile faltering a little bit, "what's an Outcode like you doing in a Doodlesphere like this?" He asked, moving fluidly in the air to float in front of Dream at eye level and turning in the air so he was no longer upside down.

"What do you mean 'outcode?'" Dream asked, looking at him strangely.

"Wait," The stranger gasped dramatically, slapping his hands over his cheeks in realization, "OH EM GOODNESS YOU'RE AN OUTCODE!" He exclaimed as if he had just realized what he'd said.

"What??" Dream said, becoming more confused by the second.

"OH MAH GAWD FREAKING FINALLY!!!" He cheered, wrapping his arm around Dream's shoulders in a tight hug, "Man it's been _forever_ since I've talked to another outcode! Believe me pal, you're gonna love it here!"

Dream blushed in confusion and sputtered a response, _"Whoareyouwhatareyoutalkingaboutwhatishappening?"_

The stranger looked at him in surprise, "Hold on, was that _Latin_ you were talking in just now?"

Dream blushed again in embarrassment, "M-maybe? I guess I did- Can you please just tell me what the heck you're talking about?"

"Oh!" he said letting go of Dream and scratching his neck nervously through the scarf, "Right, sorry buddy! I always forget outcodes are usually confused and scared," he chuckled. "Um okay, so I guess first of all, right now we're in the Doodlesphere, which is a special place that houses all the alternate universes that exist in the Multiverse. 'AU's' for short," he took a deep breath and continued, "Each and every one of those papers is a universe that was made by a Creator, which are people who exist outside the Multiverse and create the AUs." The stranger gestured to the thousands of papers around them, "Each universe has its own unique characters, timelines, and story," he took the paper from Dream's hands, "In this one, for example, all the characters have switched roles and personalities. That's why it's called Under _-Swap."_

_'Wait... Lucid said if I fused with him I'd become the most powerful being in the entire Multiverse. I didn't know what he was talking about, but this... this must be what he meant by that.'_

"Um, okay," Dream murmured, trying to inch away from the stranger, "But what's an Outcode?"

"An outcode is someone like you who has left their AU, came here, and became aware of the existence of the Multiverse and the AUs within it," he said simply, "...Well, at least I _assume_ you left your AU to come here... Why _are_ you here?" He gave Dream a skeptical look, "Was your world erased? Did you get bored of your world? Or are you running away from something?" he blinked and his eyes changed to an orange question mark and a purple spiral. "Perhaps a world you destroyed?"

"W-what?" Dream stammered, floating away from the stranger, "I-I didn't-"

"I've met a few evil outcodes who were running away from universes they destroyed. Are you evil?" he asked, reaching for the paintbrush on his back, "I mean, you don't _look_ evil, but then again, I can never really tell."

"W-what?" Dream yelped, "N-no, I'm not evil! I didn't destroy any worlds either! A-and hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'm probably the _least_ evil person I know!" Dream put up his hands in surrender, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh," the stranger pulled his arm back, "well then what do you do?"

"W-what?" Dream turned in the air again, trying to gain some kind of balance, "What do you mean?"

The stranger sat cross-legged in the air, "I mean, I help the Creators make their AUs and keep their creations safe after they're done," he said casually, "You look like you do something important, what with your cool getup and shiny crown thingy," he gestured to Dream's clothes and his headband. "So, if you're not a bad guy, what do you do for the Multiverse?"

Dream thought for a moment. Before he had protected the Tree of Feelings and the golden apples which held positive feelings, hopes and dreams. He also protected his brother in some aspects. Then again, he's known this guy for less than ten minutes and now he was expected to explain his entire existence and intentions for a Multiverse he was barely aware existed in the first place.

"I... protect positive feelings?" he said, unsure if that was the correct way to phrase it.

"Huh. Y'know I was kind of expecting something like that, I'll be honest, heheh," he drifted away from Dream and towards the vast expanse of paper universes, "Well buddy, these AUs will be even safer with you around! And I'll be even happier since I've got a new pal to spend time with!" He swam through the air and tackle-hugged Dream again.

At this point Dream was a bit less confused and more charmed by this friendly stranger, "Um, cool? Me too I guess but um, I never got your name...?"

He blinked in surprise, his eyes turning to a green exclamation point and a yellow asterisk, "Oh! Sorry, my bad, I'm horrible when it comes to remembering to do that kind of stuff," he straightened his scarf, and smiled awkwardly, "Okay, um, alright here we go..." he took a deep breath, "My name is Ink, it's nice to meet you," he held out his hand for a handshake.

Dream smiled warmly and hesitantly shook Ink's hand, "It's nice to meet you Ink, my name is Dream."

Ink shook Dream's hand and smiled back,"Dream... that's a nice name."

_**~15 years later~** _

For a few years Dream and Ink had lived together in Ink's house which resided in a partially empty universe, one that had been given to them by a creator who pitied their homelessness. It was nice enough and Dream was happy enough crashing in the guest bedroom.

As they grew older, it became apparent that neither of them wanted to talk about their past, especially Ink for some odd reason. But Dream was fine with that, he didn't really want to talk about _his_ past either. The memories of his AU were far too depressing and traumatizing to be a cheerful conversation topic.

But as time marched on, his past became harder and harder for him to remember. Bits and pieces began to flicker away from his mind. First it was only a few Latin spells, then went the names of the humans, then the paths of Mount Tbeto, then the password to the Koju Village archives.

Then slowly, bit by bit, the memory of Nightmare's mysterious poisoning and Fennec's violent death buried themselves deeper and deeper in his memory, it came to the point where he couldn't recall having a brother or witnessing the violent child-slaughter in the first place. Along with those memories, the Tree of Feelings and the apples it held began to fall further and further back into the depths of his mind, until he could no longer recall much of anything about his childhood.

After he could no longer remember the Tree of Feelings, he began to question the nature of his soul. Why was it an apple? He couldn't remember. After a while he decided to "Just roll with it, dude," as Ink so aptly put it.

During the many years he spent protecting the Multiverse and its millions of inhabitants, Dream noticed Lucid's presence had become absent. However, his aura remained, and Dream's travels continued to be sprinkled with people who became addicted to it. It would always happen the same way, he would find someone he needed to help, offer them his assistance and either someone they knew or someone who hung around them would slowly become addicted to his aura. Then when he would try to leave, they would beg him to stay, trying to bribe him with offers of food or friendship, sometimes they would even try to convince him to stay with professions of loyalty or love.

At first it was endearing for him to think they actually loved him or were willing to become his allies, but he soon learned that those too were just lies. Fabrications woven in an attempt to keep him from his duties as a sworn protector of AUs. Then he would have to complete the task of breaking their hearts. To tear himself from their worlds and swear to never return. It was almost as painful for him as it was for them. He'd gotten better at spotting the early signs, yes, but he always hoped maybe he was wrong. That maybe it was just this once that he had made a _real_ friend. But alas, he felt he was doomed to repeat the cycle forever.

His only pull from it all, the only one who helped him keep his hopes up, was Ink. Somehow he never became addicted to Dream's aura, no matter how often they hung out. It was strange, but Dream didn't care. When he was with Ink, he felt like he was actually talking to someone. Not someone who saw him as a drug to be used until it ran out, but a real person. A real _friend._ At first he thought it was a friendship type of love, but he soon realized he had feelings for Ink.

He kept it a secret of course, he didn't want to lose the only friend he had. He didn't want to be alone again. So he stayed quiet, hoping the feelings would go away on their own, or better yet, find out if Ink felt the same way. Dream did his best to keep everything semi-normal, at least, until that one Wednesday in late June of 2031.

He and Ink had been playing a game of truth or dare, the version you play with friends at a party where if someone doesn't take the truth or do the dare, they would take a shot. On that day, they were sitting on the floor of the living room, Ink leaning against the couch and Dream was sitting against the wall to his right. The coffee table had two shot glasses on it, one in front of or adjacent to both of them, and between them, a bottle of Italian tequila that Ink had dug out of a back cupboard.

They had been playing for about a half and hour at that point, and both of them were pretty tipsy(more so Ink than Dream though). Dream had never been one to indulge in too much heavy drinking, but that day he had indulged a little bit, just for fun.

"Alright you motherfudger," Ink had said, punching him playfully in the shoulder, "Truth or dare?"

Dream leaned his back against the wall, smiling at his friends with a small smile, "Uhhmm... truth."

"Heheh nyokay," Ink laughed drunkenly, lying his back against the couch in their living room. His cheeks had his trademark rainbow blush and his doofy grin,"Ummm okay hehehe... Do youg- do yous- youswf- you- dammit-" Ink slapped his hand on the couch cushions in frustration and tried again "Dream... do you think. Dat _eeyee..."_ he gestured to himself, "am a weirdo?"

"Jesus christ you're drunk," Dream chuckled in amusement, "No, I don't think you're weird. If anything, you're a very interesting person and I'm glad I'm friends with you," he said, eyeing the shot glasses on the coffee table.

"Yyou, my fffriend, is a fumckinng masserpeice," Ink slumped forward and hit his head on the coffee table. He giggled a bit and stayed like that.

"Well I don't know about that," Dream muttered, "Nyallright," he nudged his crown with his hand, trying to readjust it on his head, but instead it fell down over his left eye. He didn't bother to try and fix it, "My turn! Ink, truth or dare?"

"Uhh tooth!" Ink yelled through the coffee table, limply slapping his hand on the coffee table and giggling to himself.

"Hehehehe, Ink you are a walking disaster..." Dream giggled, _"Sigh..._ Okay, umm..." he thought for a moment. Nothing in particular sprang to mind.

Ink sat up and wiped his mouth with his hand, "If you dunn got any ideas I could just take anodder shot," he reached for the bottle of tequila.

Dream batted his hand away from the bottle, "Pfft- no you freaking alcoholic, get your hands away from that!"

"Faihnnne," Ink slumped back against the couch and dramatically draped himself over the cushions.

"Okay, I got one," Dream leaned over and grabbed a patchwork pillow from off the couch and tried to balance it on top of his head, "Do you have a crush on anybody?"

Ink paused and looked at him, his emotions changing from cheerful to confused, "Wwwhat? I dun have a cruzsh on anybody," he said bluntly, his eyes changing to a pink question mark and a purple spiral.

Dream bit his tongue, Ink sounded offended that Dream would even think such a thing, "Um... Are you sure?"

"Aff courzzz I'm sure" Ink leaned forward off the couch and looked at Dream with blank eyes, "I dun rrlly kare about that romance stuff, regular feelings are kahmplicaded already," he looked at the bottle on the table then back to Dream, "Beeesidez, nothing is mmmore important to me than the AUs. If I get tou sssidetracked with ssomeone, who _knowwz_ what kud happen to alla dem."

Dream tried to hide his disappointment. He had been hoping that that wasn't the case, "Okay then, sorry for asking."

Ink shook his head, "Nah izz kewl man, it's not like dat'd work ayways. I mean k'mahn" he leaned over and put his arm around Dream's shoulder in a friendly manner, "Iz nat like I need a boyfriend or whatever, I've got mah besst buud with me, rite Dream?

  
"...Right."

As one would imagine it was pretty hard for Dream to bounce back from such a harsh friendzone. The lack of other friends made that especially difficult, as he didn't really know that many other Outcodes apart from Ink, Error, and Core Frisk(whom he only spoke with every so often). During that time it was a bit awkward to talk to Ink. Make that very awkward, but only for Dream. It was a rough couple of months, but in time he managed to get over Ink without damage to their friendship.

Then activity in the Multiverse started to settle. Lots of AUs were being made by the Creators and only some were being obliterated by self proclaimed destroyers like Error and by other creators, all in a safe balance of creation and destruction. All the while, Dream did his best to help those left behind in the ruins. Fighting rouge outcodes who tried to destroy AUs recklessly, helping certain Creators stay motivated, or finding someone who just needed help getting back on their feet. Most of the time he would start out in the Doodlesphere and wander around in its zero gravity until he sensed negative feelings, then he would follow them like a path until he found the source of the negativity. Then all that was left would be to go into the AU, find the person, and resolve the problem.

Sometimes he would find himself going in circles because of one AU; _____Tale. It was empty and abandoned, or at least, that's what Ink had told him. But unlike other empty AUs, _____Tale resonated strong amounts of negativity. Hopelessness, rage, despair. Dream was continuously drawn back to the AU, and after a few days of this happening he finally decided to take a look inside. It was empty like Ink had said, with nothing but a giant expanse of white stretching out in every direction. Dream thought he might have been wrong, but then he heard it.

The sounds of small drops of water dripping onto the floor. The gentle _plip-plip-plip_ was soft, but it echoed in the silence like screams in an empty cavern. He couldn't locate it, the sound seemed to be all around him. It took a few minutes of random teleporting to try to find the source of the sound, and the thin shower of sparkles that appeared to follow him when he teleported quickly went from fun and quirky to annoying and infuriating. Eventually he found what was making the dripping sound.

It was a person, kneeling on the ground all by himself. The sound was coming from him, he was crying.

Dream could see he was wearing a black jacket with a furry white fringe around the hood and a white scarf with a thick black outline around the fringe, it's three-forked tail sitting limp on the ground next to him. Short white sleeves stuck out from under his scarf and white X's were plated across both sides of his black shorts. Two long patches of white fabric crossed in another X shape on his back. He was slumped forward and Dream couldn't see much of his face, but noticed a small golden heart locket that hung around his neck and stuck out loosely from under the black front of the scarf.

"What have I done?" he said through choked sobs, "It's all gone- I shouldn't have- God Chara, what are we going to do?" he gingerly held the locket around his neck.

Dream felt a different presence appear beside the stranger, one that was also upset and afraid. There was a pause and the stranger's head lifted slightly, "No, it was my mistake. If I hadn't fused our souls... we wouldn't have been left to rot here."

Dream took a step towards the stranger, his footstep echoing through the vast expanse of emptiness. The stranger's head snapped up and he scrambled backwards in fear. It was then that Dream saw his face for the first time.

He was the Sans of his universe, but instead of regular white eyes, his left eye-light was a blazing red, with a glowing red lightning mark on his cheek underneath it. Tear tracks were still fresh on his face, a face that was scared and confused. He blinked at Dream in confusion.

To Dream's surprise he sighed angrily, shutting his eyes and shaking his head. "I think I'm seeing things now. Have we really been here that long, Chara?" he looked to his left as if expecting a response. There was nothing but silence for a few seconds but the stranger huffed again, "It's probably not real anyways," he cast a sad look back over at Dream before sitting down and pulling his knees close to his chest.

Dream thought for a moment. An idea came to mind, and though he usually used this sort of tactic on scared animals, perhaps it could also work to appear non-threatening to this person. Dream took a few steps back so that there was at least six feet between him and the stranger and sat down on his knees with his feet tucked under him.

He folded his hands neatly on his lap and took a deep breath, "Hello, my name is Dream," he said in a soft tone, trying to put on a comforting smile, "I'm here to help you."

The stranger blinked in surprise and stared at Dream, "...Wait. I'm not- We're not... You're... you're real?"

Dream nodded quietly, "I assure you, I am very real. May I ask your name?"

The stranger hesitated for a moment, as if some invisible third party was trying to convince him not to respond, "M... My name is Cross."

"Cross," Dream repeated, "...that's a lovely name."

The two eventually got to talking and eventually Dream learned his story. From the way he described it, Cross had been the sole survivor of an AU Purge, which is when a creator destroys their own AU out of frustration. Cross had survived because he and the human, which asked to be referred to as XChara, had fused their souls together, so that the DETERMINATION had kept the both of them alive. After it was over, the human confessed that he couldn't reset, leaving the both of them trapped there and forced to share Cross' body.

After Cross had explained what had happened to their AU, Dream began to explain how he had found Cross, and that he only wanted to help. After a few minutes of talking, Dream decided to explain the existence of the Multiverse, knowing full well that he was making another Outcode in the process. But Outcodes were never inherently good nor bad; it was only what they decided to do with their knowledge that made them so.

Cross had been a strange case. He jumped from being angry and wanting revenge on his Creator, to feeling dejected and wanting to find his Creator and ask for another chance, until he finally settled on wanting to protect more AU Purges from occurring. At first Dream was against the idea, the creators were the most powerful beings in the entire Multiverse, able to create life and destroy it at their own will. However, when Dream had told him this, Cross had only become _more_ set on wanting to protect more AUs from destruction. Dream had argued that Cross couldn't run around recklessly without knowledge of the way everything worked.

Eventually they came to an agreement; Cross would accompany Dream on his journeys to learn the ways of protecting AUs and Dream would get a partner to help protect him against more violent enemies they encountered. It was a fair enough deal for Dream and he teleported the two of them (three counting XChara) to the Doodlesphere. Cross had reacted pretty much like a lot of other Outcodes do; first a little confused then amazed by the amount of AUs and then freaking out in the zero-gravity for a few minutes. It's _always_ funny.

After the first few AUs they visited it became apparent that XChara could only communicate to Cross while they were in an AU and would otherwise go completely silent. It wasn't a problem at first, but as weeks grew into months and Dream and Cross grew closer as friends, XChara began to stop talking altogether, until the only sign that the human was still there was when Cross would summon his weapon; a sword-sized knife that blazed red with DETERMINATION.

It was about two years after they met that Cross had confessed that he had feelings for Dream.

Now, this would have been like a dream come true if it weren't for Dream's anxiety trying to convince him otherwise. It kept telling him that his close friend had just fallen victim to his aura just like everyone else did. That Cross' feelings weren't real and that _his_ feelings weren't real because he was too caught up in the fantasy of someone _actually_ loving him to see that it was all just an illusion. At one point he had relayed these thoughts to his friend Blue, the Sans of the AU UnderSwap, in the hopes of some reassurance.

"Dream, you really have to stop listening to your anxiety, it _really_ doesn't help you."

"But what if-"

"Dream, listen. How does he make you feel?"

"...He makes me feel happy... a-and he treats me like an individual. He's nice to me and always does his best to make me smile. And I really like it when he does that... I really like him."

"Then go tell him that, silly!"

And so he did.

He expected the worst; to be too late, to be turned down, to be yelled at for taking such a long time to come up with an answer. All of the _worst_ possible scenarios.

What Dream _wasn't_ expecting was for Cross to be overjoyed with the news. Even less so with Cross freaking _kissing him._ Like, yeah it was a magical experience and all, but he did not expect it to be _that_ incredible.

After a few months of dating and everything going smoothly, a Creator contacted them through Ink and said they wanted to give the two of them a place to live together (because apparently that's what couples do). Apparently that Creator had also been rooting for the two of them to get together, which was a tad bit creepy, but still very sweet. So that's how they ended up with a two story house in a grassy field on top of a small hill that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere (not nowhere, it was actually the same half-empty universe as Ink's house, which was cool and convenient).

The house was a yellow ochre color with grey roof tiles and had three bedrooms, (plus an extra storage closet) a porch patio, furniture, a kitchen and dining room, along with a cute little back garden. Along with those things was a random lawn chair embedded in the dirt on the front lawn, a tall birch tree that sat close to the house and a dumpster at the back of the house.

It was July 2032 that Cross proposed to Dream.

It was at the Fourth of July celebration in Haventale and they had been watching the fireworks show that began after the sun had gone down. Your typical celebration with bursts of red, white, and blue firing and exploding into a brilliant light show in the dark sky. The two of them were sitting on a blanket in the grass watching the spectacle with everyone else, with Dream resting his head against Cross' shoulder and Cross holding one arm around Dream. Then, just as they were about to do the last round of fireworks for the night, Cross began talking about how much he'd loved spending the past few months with Dream and how lucky he was to have someone like him in his life.

"So Dream," he took a deep breath and reached into his coat pocket.

"Oh my god," Dream covered his eyes with his hands in disbelief, feeling his face begin to get hot as a golden blush spread over it.

"Would you make me the happiest idiot in the Multiverse," Cross pulled out a little velvet box and opened it, revealing a small silver ring inside, "and be my husband?"

Dream's hands moved away from his eyes and over his ever-growing smile. Tears of joy pricked the corners of his eyes and he nodded, "Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" he nearly tackled Cross in a tight hug, knocking the box out of his boyfriend's hand as the two of them fumbled back against the soft blanket, laughing happily.

Cross smiled wide as Dream continued to make noises of excitement on his chest. Dream looked up at him with a bright smile, a single tear of happiness rolling down his face. Cross sat up and held Dream's face in his hands as he wiped the tear away with his thumb. Dream giggled softly and looked dreamily into Cross' eyes, not even caring about the almost overwhelming positivity that was heating up his body.

The last firework of the night screamed into the sky and exploded as the two leaned in and shared a kiss, both closing their eyes as the rest of the world faded into a muffled silence. 


	10. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OwO, whats this? An update that DOESN'T contain angst or angst related material? Oh ho! What an exciting new development!  
> (Enjoy this fluff before things get nuts)hey that rhymed))sorry I'll leave now)))

Dream was pretty tired. He had spent most of his day helping a resident of a BirdTale from a genocide timeline and afterwards got into a scuffle with an Outcode named Horror, which lasted about two hours and resulted in Dream completely and utterly exhausted. So instead of continuing to drag himself around the Doodlesphere like a sack of potatoes, he decided to go home and rest.

As Dream took his house key from his pocket and unlocked the door, he was immediately greeted by his husband's fluffy brown and black border collie, Slinky, who ran up to him, floofy tail wagging and puppy dog smile shining bright.

"Hey Slinkie!" he said in a cutesy voice, kneeling down to pet Slinky and scratch the side of the dog's face, "Did you miss me buddy?" 

"Bark!" Slinky yipped, jumping a little to leave a little kiss on Dream's nose.

"Aww, thanks bud," Dream cooed. He yawned and Slinky copied him, "You would not believe the day I've had, puppy. I am _exhausted."_

"Is that you, babe?" Cross called from the kitchen.

"No, it's the loch ness monster," Dream replied sarcastically, getting back up and closing the front door behind him.

"Eh, same thing," Cross said with a shrug as he walked into the living room. He was in his usual casual wear, wearing a light gray T-shirt and dark jeans.

"Heeyyy!" Dream whined in mock offense, sticking his tongue out at his lover.

"Oh come on you know I'm kidding," Cross chuckled, giving Dream a hug.

Dream hugged him back, standing on his tippy-toes to nuzzle into Cross' chest, "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know," he sighed, breathing in Cross' scent.

"Welcome home, babe," Cross whispered, planting a little kiss on Dreams forehead.

"God I missed you," Dream breathed, pulling his face away from Cross' chest and giving him a little kiss.

Cross kissed back, "It's been like, half a day," he chuckled, looking at Dream lovingly.

"Feels like _forever,"_ Dream sighed dramatically, leaning into his husband, "I've had such a long day and I am exhausted-"

"Bark!" Slinky interrupted, pawing at Cross' leg, "Woof woof!"

Cross looked down at the furbaby, "You want some too bud?"

Dream let go of Cross and chuckled, "Who's a good boy?" he said to Slinky, putting his hands on his knees playfully. Slinky barked excitedly, wagging his tail and jumping into a playing position, "Is it Slinky? Is Slinky a good boy?"

"Arf!" Slinky yapped, as if saying, "Yes! It _is_ me!"

Cross chuckled and ruffled the dogs fur, "The best boy in the _whooole_ Multiverse!"

"Ruff!" Slinky barked happily, pleased with this news.

Cross turned back to Dream, a little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, "Hey, I've got a surprise for you."

"Really?" Dream said, raising an eyebrow

Cross nodded, "Mm-hm close your eyes."

Dream sighed, closing his eyes, "Alright."

"Great," he felt Cross gently take his hand and start guiding him down the hallway. 

Dream heard Slinky's pawsteps following close behind. After a moment he felt the cold marble tile of the kitchen beneath his boots, and smelled the sweet aroma of chocolate and brown sugar wafting over from nearby. Cross let go of his hand and stepped away from a moment and there was a soft clink followed by the sound of Cross stepping back in front of him.

"Aaand open 'em!"

Dream opened his eyes, "Gasp!"

Cross was holding a chocolate chip cookie in front of his face, the warm gooey chocolate glinting in the dim kitchen light. Dream snatched the cookie and bit into it, the semi-sweet chocolate was delicious and the soft cookie seemed to melt in his mouth. He felt little tears starting to form in his eyes, "Dis is really goub," he murmured, mouth full of cookie.

Cross snickered at him, "Is it good?"

"Erm hrm," Dream replied, smiling happily. He gobbled up the rest of the cookie quickly, "I reay wove it. I could eef deze owl day."

"Too bad you can't."

Dream swallowed the rest of the cookie, "What do you mean?"

Cross shrugged, "You said it yourself, you're exhausted and you need rest."

"Oh right," Dream laughed quietly, "I guess I'm going to bed," He started turning around but Cross put his hand on Dream's shoulder, stopping him.

"Afraid I cant let you do that," he said.

Dream turned around, giving his husband a confused smile, "What? Why?"

"I can't let you go up the stairs by yourself!" he said with a small smirk, "You're exhausted, let me carry you."

Dream blushed slightly, "There no need really, I can-"

"Too late," Cross quickly swept him off his feet and held him bridal style in his arms.

"Hey!" Dream yelped, blushing profusely, "Cross! C'mon put me down!" he protested, wriggling a little in his lovers arms.

"Nay, I say!" Cross shouted excitedly, "I shall bring you on a heroic quest and carry you up the stairs to thyne living quarters!"

"Oh my god you're such a dork," Dream covered his face with his hands, trying to hide his smile.

"Onwards!" Cross cheered, quickly sprinting down the hall, Slinky following behind and barking excitedly. He rounded the corner and started up the stairs, a determined smirk on his face.

Dream giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his hand and leaning into Cross. He felt the soft warmth of their positive feelings in his chest running along his arms and to his fingertips. His blushing had calmed down from its previous temperature of _the center of the sun,_ to what felt more like a warm campfire. Cross got to the top of the stairs and rounded the corner into their bedroom.

It was a quaint little room, two windows on either side of the bed, an umber-colored wooden dresser adjacent to the closet, a door to the master bathroom and in the corner, a small bookshelf full of stories and a big pile of fluffy pillows and a blue knitted blanket. The walls were painted a nice cream color and on the left wall there was a bulletin board with little pictures and mementos pinned to it. Dream smiled at them to himself.

"Okay Cross, you can put me down now," Dream said, looking at Cross with a raised eyebrow.

"You want me to just drop you?" Cross teased.

"What- no! Of course not!" Dream said, wriggling again, "If you could just put me down _gently,_ that'd be-"

"How about this?" Cross said suspiciously, taking a few steps towards the bed and gently started swinging Dream in his arms, "You ready? One, two, three! Yeet!" he exclaimed, tossing Dream onto the mattress.

"Eep!" Dream hit the bed with a thump. He giggled a bit, feeling his cheeks heat up again. He sat up and pouted at Cross, flustered, "I hate you."

"I love you too," Cross chuckled.

They both laughed for a moment, feeling their worries melt away. Dream turned and hopped off the bed, "Well I guess I need to get into my pajamas, huh?"

Two little clouds of purple blush appeared on Cross' cheeks, "Oh, uh, yeah," he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, "I, uh, guess I'll be downstairs!"

Dream walked up to Cross and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Okay, goodnight honey."

Cross smiled sheepishly, the blush subtly spreading across his face, "G'night babe," he leaned in to return the kiss and Dream obliged.

Dream would still say that kissing Cross was the best thing in the world, thank you very much. And if anyone disagreed, then they just hadn't done it yet (and they weren't going to either!). Of course, there was that whole annoying thing where Cross had to leave, but it was worth it nonetheless.

The two parted, Cross giving Dream a look that radiated adoration as he left, "I love you."

Dream echoed the sentiment sleepily, by muscle memory if nothing else, "Love you too."

After Cross left, Dream started getting ready for bed, taking off his normal outfit and settling into his pajamas. They weren't really anything special, just a stolen gray NASA hoodie that was a few sizes too big on him and a pair of pastel purple shorts(as well as a pair of bunny slippers, but he only wore those around the house). Afterwards Dream hopped onto the left side of the bed (which they both silently agreed was his) and leaned back against the soft pillows and warm blankets.

Dream sighed, feeling the stress of the day seem to melt away. He yawned and stretched before taking his headband off and looking at it for a moment. He traced his finger over the buds thoughtfully. Somehow it still fits him after all these years. He shrugged it off and placed it on the nightstand, right next to a framed picture of him, Cross, and Slinky at a picnic.

Dream lay back down, pulling the covers over himself and getting all nice and cozy. He heard the familiar _click-click-tap-tap_ of Slinky's paws walk over and jump up on the bed, curling up right next to Dreams feet and falling asleep. Dream felt his own eyes start to feel heavy and slowly close, and his breathing began to slow. The only sound was of his and Slinky's breathing and the birds singing outside. The world seemed to melt away and he quickly slipped into the world of sleep.


	11. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Depictions of Gore  
> I'M BACK BISHES-  
> Ahem, what I meant to say was; Greetings, dear readers! I, your humble fanfiction overlord hast madeth a neweth chaptereth for your reading pleasureth! I hopeth you enjoyeth- god damnit I cant do this, just read the darn fanfiction already. 
> 
> (does anybody actually read these?)

The horde was creeping ever closer. 

They knew. He knew they knew, why else would they be after him? He turned to cast a glance back at them.

Humans. Mutilated. Bloodied faces, missing limbs, torn jaws, organs spilling out from gashes in their stomachs, bones peeking through torn skin and ripped torsos. Their bodies jerkily dragged themselves after him, moaning in pain as the horde quickly gained on him.

He tried to run faster. He didn't want them to catch him, but he wasn't sure why. Why should he run? They were chasing him, that's why. Dream hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, he felt himself hit a wall. He scrambled back trying to regain his balance. He looked from side to side, the other paths were gone, replaced with walls. He was cornered.

The horde advanced, closing in on him. At the front of the crowd was a small boy with one eye and a slit that went all across his throat.

“You left us…” the boy groaned, his voice rough and scratchy.

“W-who are you?!” he stammered pressing his back against the wall.

“You left us all…” the boy said, ignoring his plea.

“P-please! I don't know who you are!” he begged, casting a frightful glance at all of the shuffling figures.

“We needed you...” one of the figures said, their breathy voice sending shivers down his spine, “And you didn't save us…”

“You didn't even try...” said the boy, taking a shambly step towards him, “Why did that happen?”

“I dont- I-” he felt himself crouching down in fear, “I don't know what you’re talking about!”

“Yes you do. You left us to die,” the boy said, taking another step closer. He could almost smell the stench of rotting flesh, “You left _me_ to die,” the boy breathed. The rest of the horde shuffled forward a little in response.

“I’m sorry? I'm sorry!” he shouted, covering his face with his hands and trembling, “B-but I don't know who you are!”

“You do,” the horde said in monotone unison, “We trusted you. We trusted you and you left us to rot. You are no hero. You are no protector... You are no angel.”

He shrunk down lower, “I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I'm sorry!” he cried, silently hoping his yelling would drive them away.

Why were they here? How did they get here?

...

How did _he_ get here?

 _‘Wait...'_ he looked back up at the horde, his eyes widening in realization _‘This... this is a dream. I’m... I’m dreaming...’_ he stood up. _‘No, not dreaming. It's happening again. I’m... oh no.’_

The boy took another step towards him, his head wobbling haphazardly on his neck, “You abandoned us...” he breathed. “You abandoned him.”

“What do you mean?” Dream said, his voice just barely above a whisper.

The boy took a step aside to let another figure through.

He was a skeleton in a purple long sleeve shirt and pants. Dark eyes, a face torn with pain and suffering. A gold headband perched on his head, a crescent carved in the center. As he got closer Dream noticed dark burn scars on the stranger’s bony hands and fingers. He moved closer to Dream and offered his hand, “Please...” he breathed in a raspy voice, “Come home.”

“W...who are you?” Dream said, looking at the figure's hand in fear. He couldn't look at his face for too long, it distorted and blurred whenever he tried to.

“Please...” the figure said sadly, “If you don't come back, bad things will happen.”

“What... what do you mean?”

The figure shook his head, “Shadows rise as the faux heroes fall. Twenty-two years we have waited for you, but now you must return our call...” the figure began to dissipate like a cloud of mist. The world around them began to darken a single beam of light enveloping the two as the rest of the figures melted into the dark void.

“W-wait! What does that mean?” Dream cried, trying to grab the figure's shoulders and stop him. It was useless, his hands slipped right through the figure's body.

The figure looked at him with a sad smile, putting his hand on his shoulder, “Time is running out... You need to remember where you came from...” with that, the rest of the figures form disappeared.

“No, wait!” Dream spun around wildly in the semi-darkness, “Come back! What do you mean?”

He was answered only by silence. He sighed, feeling his shoulders slump in disappointment. Then he heard it.

The sound of a cat's claws scraping against the floor. The muffled squeaking of a stuffed animal's feet against the earth. A bird's talons scraping against stone. And among them, growing louder was a loud slithering sound, coupled with a soft wet hiss. Dream squinted, trying to see past the beam of light that enveloped him and locate whatever was making the noises.

Then suddenly, a horrible creature lashed out from the darkness. It looked like a human eye, the dark blue iris glowing viciously. Its face was split open like a mouth, the jagged edges of cut flesh more likened to sharp teeth. The pupil was small and black, it stared at him with almost rabid loathing. It was nearly as tall as him, with the giant arms of a praying mantis attached to long entrails from its eyeball head, shaped like a snake's body. It screeched and lunged at him, pincers enclosing around his body, it pulled him closer and closer to its snapping jaws until-

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

Dream’s eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, screaming in terror. It was a short, but shrill scream that rang out through the house. He huddled down, covering his face with his hands as he sobbed uncontrollably, his breathing quick and uneven. It almost got him. It could have gotten him. It _should_ have gotten him. Why hadn't it gotten him?

A hand lightly brushed his shoulder and he jumped back abruptly, not knowing what he expected to see. A horrible nightmare creature? A demon? An on-fire garbage can?!

He could actually use one of those, maybe turn it into a nursery... For Slinky, of course.

No wait... it was Cross.

He stared at Dream with a look of great concern, his brow furrowed and eyes fraught with worry. He had pulled his hand back in surprise, but he reached out again, slower this time. He rested his hand on Dream’s shoulder for a moment, “You okay?

Dream breathed out shakily, “I-I... no.”

Cross sighed, nudging Dream closer to him, “C’mere,” Dream obliged, shuffling closer to Cross as his husband's arms cradled him gently. He sobbed quietly for a moment. Cross stroked his arms lovingly, quietly whispering to him, “Hey, hey, it's okay. You're okay, alright? I’ve got you.”

Dream covered his eyes with his hands, stuttering aloud, “I-I cant- Why is it- I-I don't-”

“Hey hey hey, shhh,” Cross leaned down and gently kissed Dream's forehead, “It's okay, you're safe,” There was a quiet pause as Dream tried to calm himself down. After a moment Cross asked, “Another one?”

Dream breathed out shakily, trying to relax his arms and legs as he leaned into Cross’ chest and nodded, “Y-yeah.”

Cross sighed quietly, “The sixth, right?”

“S-seventh,” Dream answered, fiddling with his hands.

“Jesus...” Cross breathed.

“I-I don't know why it's happening- why won’t it stop?” he gasped and turned to look up at his lover, “What if it never stops?”

Cross gave him a strange look, “W...what?”

“What if it never stops happening? What if I have to live with this for the rest of my life?” Dream’s mind was running at a mile a minute, it almost felt as if his mouth couldn't keep up, “What if it just keeps happening and I can't make it stop and you can't find a way to fix meand it keepshappening over and over and over until I die and- _”_

“Dream,” Cross squeezed his arm gently, pulling him out of the rabbit hole he was falling into.

Dream hesitantly set his hand on top of Cross’ and took a deep breath, “I-I’m sorry.”

“Don't be sorry, Dream,” Cross reassured him. “You didn't do anything wrong.”

“B-but I know how much it scares you when I do this!” Dream whimpered, “I know you don't want me to see it, but I do! I... I can feel it.” Dream covered his face in shame. Sure he was grateful for his empath abilities, they were what helped him do his job. However, he felt it was wrong for him to read his husband's emotions. He shouldn't be allowed to do that.

Cross sighed sadly, “I...” he paused, as if trying to think of the right thing to say.

Dream peeked through his fingers, “I'm sorry- I wish I could stay out of your head, but-”

“No, it's okay,” Cross said calmly, “I get that you can't control it,” he put his arms around Dream, pulling him into a hug.

Dream huffed quietly, feeling his fingers twitch and fidget as he moved them away from his face, “It's just- sometimes I worry that I know you better than I know myself!” Dream’s soul was beating harder and harder in his chest,“I don't understand these confusing nightmares- they feel so real- a-and every emotion that goes through your head is on full display to me without me even trying to read it and I- I don't know- I cant- I cant- I don't-” his hands were curled into fists on the sides of his face and his breathing was rapid and panicked. Was he hyperventilating? His chest hurt- there was danger nearby. It was coming for him. What was it? He didn't know. He was scared, where was it? Nearby-

“Hey hey hey, Dream, it's okay,” Cross turned Dream to face him, “C’mon Dream, focus on me, okay?”

“I cant - I cant-” Dream stuttered out. He looked up at Cross. There was a soft, warm feeling coming from his soul, it was calm. Dream looked into his eyes, the faint red-white glow comforted him. He felt himself relax a little. Dream closed his eyes.

_‘Breathe in for seven…’_ Dream breathed in and counted to seven, _‘Hold it for four…’_ he held his breath and counted to four, _‘Out for eight…’_ he breathed out.

“There we go,” Cross said quietly as Dream repeated the process a few times, “There we go. You're okay, you’re safe...

After a moment Dream sighed, his breathing was back to normal. It was only now that he noticed Cross gently stroking his shoulders with his hands. He smiled quietly, “I-I’m okay... I’m... I’m safe,” he repeated, nuzzling closer to Cross’ chest.

Cross smiled down at him, “Y’know, sometimes I feel like I know you better than myself too, so I think it evens out.”

“But if neither of us know what these nightmares are about, what are we gonna do?” Dream whispered.

“Hmm…” Cross thought for a moment, “How about tomorrow morning, you and me head on over to ReaperTale and talk to Life about all this, maybe she’ll be able to help.”

Dream nodded, “That sounds like a good idea but...” he hesitated, “what if she can't?”

“Well then,” Cross booped Dream on the nose, “I've always enjoyed a good mystery.”

Dream blushed a little and smiled “Y-yeah...”

Cross leaned back against the pillows, cradling Dream closer to him, “Do you remember what I said to you on our wedding day?”

“No, you'll have to remind me,” Dream joked.

Cross snickered a little, “I said ‘No matter what happens, good or bad, I promise we’ll do it together.’” He said, moving his hand over Dream’s, “Remember?”

Dream nodded, intertwined his fingers with his husband’s “Yeah, I do.”

“I meant that,” Cross said, doing the same, “Whatever this is, we’re going to get through it together, okay?”

Dream smiled softly, Yeah...”

There was a moment of silence as the conversation ended, with the sounds of the night subtly taking over. An owl hooting from the roof, the gentle titter of the tree leaves, the crickets chirping happily, all in the harmony of the night. Then a soft, _click-click-click-tap-tap-tap_ and the sound of jingling dog tags entered the room. Slinky hopped up onto the bed and trotted over to dream, sniffing his face and lying down next to him.

“Hey buddy,” Dream said, scratching the side of the dog’s face with his other hand, “I'm okay, I just had a bad dream.” Slinky whined and licked Dream’s hand in sympathy. “Thank you puppy,” he sighed. Slinky wagged his tail in response, giving Dream a proud smile.

“Yeah, dasa good boy.” Cross said quietly.

“I still can't believe you found him in the dumpster,” Dream said with a sly smile.

“Oh yeah?” Cross said with a smirk.

Dream nodded, “Well yeah, it's not everyday you take out the trash and find a whole frickin’ puppy chewing on a slinky he found in the garbage,” Dream giggled.

“Well it's also not everyday that I watched a certain someone cry while watching Sharkboy and Lavagirl,” Cross said snarkily.

“That was one time!” Dream argued, feeling his cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

“Yeah but it was hilarious,” Cross chuckled, “You were so drunk, oh my _god-”_

“Yeah, well, it's not _my_ fault Ink bought the strongest liquor he could find!!” Dream squeaked in self-defense.

“I remember you got really excited whenever they said the word ‘dream,’” Cross continued in near hysterics, simply too caught up in the memory to hear Dream arguing, “And when they went to the ‘Dream Graveyard’ you got really sad oh my hahaha- kak-” he coughed, nearly choking on his laughter, “Hahaha! You kept throwing pillows at the TV when the robot George Lopez came on screen! What was it that you kept saying?” Cross laughed again.

“Shuddup!” Dream yelped, shoving Cross playfully.

“Oh yeah! You kept saying ‘Why he big robo circle man?’ Oh my gosh, it was so- mmph!” Cross’ eyes went wide as Dream pulled him into a kiss, effectively shutting him up.

Cross then slowly melted into the kiss, wrapping his hand around Dream’s waist and pulling him closer. Dream moaned quietly, their passion was nearly overwhelming his soul. He enjoyed the kiss for a moment longer then pulled away, his cheeks felt hot and were a golden colored blush. He felt his eyes get heavy and he gasped for breath, looking lovingly into his husband's eyes.

Cross smiled softly at him, his cheeks a bright purple blush, “I love the way you tell me to shut up~” he said softly.

“And _I_ love that most of the time you deserve it~” Dream stuck out his tongue playfully.

Cross chuckled, “Heh heh, yeah I do.”

The two cuddled for a moment, both enjoying each other's company. Dream had his head rested on Cross’ chest, listening quietly to the sound of Cross’ half human-half monster soul beating. Cross was resting his chin on Dream’s skull, his arms wrapped around the smaller protectively. Soon the world around them began to fade as their shared embrace lulled the both of them to sleep.


	12. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: none  
> *gay screaming*  
> Anyways, a little thing I wanna add here because its been bugging me for a while, at some point this month I'm gonna actually go back to the first chapter and re-write Dream's description(because it'd make more sense to have him in his old design than the new one bc who wear the same clothes for 22 years) As for what he's currently dressed in I'm gonna trust that you guys already know (you're reading fanfiction about him after all) 
> 
> Also I'm gonna change my update schedule a tad and push it from two days in between updates to three because I'm a ADHD mess and I get distracted by my hair.  
> Ok sorry for the rant, enjoy!

He was asleep, and he was dreaming. It would have been a normal dream, but it wasn't. Instead of weird or happy things, there were bright flashes that appeared between strange images. 

A tree at the top of a hill, wind blowing through the light and dark leaves. A bright flash. 

The joyful laughter of two brothers and a feeling of warmth. Another flash. 

Cynical laughter and fiery orange eyes peering through the darkness. A brighter flash.

The sound of someone hitting the ground. A human teenager looks up at someone from the ground, their silver eyes blazing in the night. 

Another bright flash. A deer-like monster weeps over the shredded corpse of a small child. 

A rigid spike of fear shocked Dream awake, making him jump slightly under the covers. He was quiet as he caught his breath and calmed himself down.

He sat up and looked at his clock, it read 8:52. He was tucked into their bed and he could hear what sounded like AllStar by Smashmouth faintly playing from downstairs. Dream sighed, Cross was probably downstairs working on his project.

_‘I know he’s really invested in this thing, but I wish he'd just let me help him. Even though I don't know much about code I'd feel better if it was me instead of Error. I don't trust him, but Cross insists. It's like this scavenger hunt thing is taking over his life.’_

_‘Sometimes I feel like he cares about his project more than me.’_

Dream blinked in surprise. Surely he hadn't meant that. Cross was going to help him today. They were going to go to ReaperTale and ask Life if she knew anything that could help him.

But... perhaps he could do this on his own.

Not the whole getting over the weird nightmares thing, but trying to find the source of said nightmares. If the place from most of the nightmares was real, he should be able to find it in the Doodlesphere, right? Whatever it is(or was) maybe it could even help him figure out where he came from. Oh, he would love that. He couldn't remember anything past his thirteenth birthday, so if the place had something to do with his foggy past, he would be able to have all his questions answered.

_‘That settles it then. I’ll go to the Doodlesphere, find the place from my dreams and figure it out by myself!'_ He sat up and flung the covers away, _‘Yeah! I don't need Cross’ help, I can do it all on my own! Besides, he's is so preoccupied he probably wouldn't even notice I'm gone. Then when I get back, he’ll see that I don't need his help to figure myself out!’_

He hopped out of bed and got dressed, feeling little pinpricks of excitement starting to bloom in his neck and fingertips. After he was done with that, he put on the finishing touch, his golden headband! Dream would call it a crown, but that made him feel like he was calling himself royalty, which to his knowledge, he was not(and he didn’t consider himself to be worthy of being anyways). He was about to head downstairs when he got an idea.

_‘I should leave a note, just so he knows I'm safe. Wouldn't want him to worry.’_

Dream looked around for a moment and found a pencil and paper. He thought for a moment.

**Dear Cross,**

**I'm going to go to the Doodlesphere to find**

Dream shook his head and erased what he wrote. That would ruin the surprise. He started over.

**Dear Cross,**

**I have an errand with Ink that I forgot about last night. I'll be at Ink’s house for a while, but I should be back in about four hours. Don't worry, I'll try to stay out of trouble :)**

**Love,**

**Dream**

He read it over and nodded, this should be fine. He went over to the bulletin board and pulled a sticker of tape off a sticker pad so he could pin it to the door. Ink usually drinks every other Sunday which, Dream cast a quick glance at the calendar, just so happens to be today. So thankfully Ink wouldn't be getting wasted. Dream smiled a bit to himself, this was a great plan! He would be back before noon and if anything happened to him, Ink would be there (and sober enough) to help look for him! It was foolproof!

He snuck downstairs, being careful as to not make too much noise. The music had changed to something that sounded like two men swearing loudly accompanied by pulsing beats in the background. His husband’s taste in music was weird.

He looked down the hall into the storage closet where Cross had set up camp for his project. Papers were attached to the walls via long strands of red string and little pieces of tape. A pair of filing cabinets sat on the floor, one was almost filled to the brim with papers and other things, and the other one looked about a quarter of the way full.

Dream felt something softly nudge his hand. He looked down to see Slinky looking up at him with his big brown eyes. He cast another look back down the hall, Cross was probably piecing code scraps together.

Dream quietly breathed a sigh of relief and knelt down to pet Slinky, “Hey, puppy. Don’t tell Papa, but I'm going on a secret mission!” he whispered.

Slinky sat down and started scratching behind his ear, obviously elated.

“I know! So can you be good for Papa while I'm gone?”

Slinky sneezed and smiled, obviously understanding everything that he was saying.

Dream smiled and patted the top of Slinky's head ruffling up his fur and floppy ears, “Good boy, I knew I could count on you!”

Slinky trotted over to his dog bed next to the couch and lay down, falling asleep. Dream smiled, trying to resist the urge to melt into a puddle at the sight of the sleeping pupper. He managed to pry his eyes from the little sleepy boi and walked up to the front door, sticking the note onto the door and quietly leaving the house.

After Dream snuck out the front door he breathed a sigh of relief. He really had to stop sneaking around so much, it would make him too anxious. He fidgeted a little, best not to think about that too much. Before anything else could bother him he shrugged off his problems and teleported to the Doodlesphere, leaving no more than a shower of glimmery sparkles in his wake.

When Dream got there, he tried to remember what it was Ink had told him all those years ago.

_“The Doodlesphere has TONS of different functions, it houses all the AUs in the multiverse, it can take you to any AU that exists within it, it has zero gravity, it got uhhh... Oh yeah! So let's say you want to go to an AU, but for some reason you don't know its name. In that case you simply have to think about what it looks like, or what the people in it are like and POOF! Its paper appears in front of you. Then it's pretty standard from there. Grab the page, open a portal and hop in! Simple right?”_

It _was_ pretty simple, that's how he visited most AUs with hard-to-remember-names. He tried to envision the place most of his nightmares took him to, the apple tree. He pictured the tall tree perched on its hill, it's dark and light green leaves accompanied by two kinds of apples: shiny golden ones on the left and dark indigo ones on the right. A village within walking distance. A great mountain with a large forest that stretched its tendrils to the edges of the village.

_Poof!_

Dream looked down at the paper. Its name was obscured by a smear of black ink, yellow glinting on the edges that reflected the light in the Doodlesphere. There was an arrow drawn with the same ink pointing to what had been written below it. he could just barely make the words out, but it sent chills down his spine.

l̶̠̈́̓͜ủ̴̯̰̕c̵͇͂̅ ̷̞̂̚ ̵̹̄i̷̩̊ ̵̜̺̾̉ ̸̟̐d̶͎̆ ̷̼͛ ̸͎̼̓a̸̪͓̎̑n̴̪̄̕ ̷̻͙͂ ̴͚̲̍d̴̩͑ ̷̞̽ ̶̢̼̽͐n̵̫̎͘i̵̹̝̿̇g̸̹̎́ ̶̟̀h̶̳̅t̷̖͖͗́ ̷̛̻̞ ̴̘̳͝t̶̻́̋è̷̲̿r̶̯̹̋ ̴̗͍͂͑r̶̡̳ ̸̩̌̕o̴̳͑r̸͓̻̉ ̵̝̘͆ ̴̞̠̎w̷͕͛ ̷͚̌ ̷̺̭̒ỉ̵̲͕l̸̗͒̓ ̴̢̘͌l̶͇̦̆ ̷̦͂̆ ̷͍͋͛b̶̤̫̏̚e̵̛͖͓̚c̵͈̓o̷̗̎ ̴͙̈́̾m̷̪̪͝ḙ̵̺̇ ̴̰͎̃g̴̡o̸͇̮͌ ̶͓̋ ̵̤̊ͅd̷̘̤̿̀ ̵̥͐̐ ̸̛̹s̷̙͈̈́͛

He couldn't make the words out, but it sent chills down his spine. Why would someone do this to an AU? He tried to shake it off and pulled up the portal. For some reason he couldn't see inside, there was only a white glow that seemed to beckon for him. Dream took a deep breath and patted his pocket, reassuring himself that his phone was still there.

“It's okay, Dream. You can do this,” he said to himself, ready to go into the portal, “You can do this.”

“Okay... here we go.”


	13. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: Cursing (note: after this chapter there will no longer be swear warnings)mostly cuz the precious little snowflakes probably left a while ago))probably at the massacre chapter haha)))  
> sfdsdhdsghshgdsagjhdjsf  
> Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long (a lot o' bullshit kept coming up) but I'm FINALLY here with the new chapter! I might add some pictures for reference later on of some of my OCs(if i can do that, I'm till new here) but until then ill leave you guys with the descriptions ;)  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

On the other side of the portal, Dream found himself at the bottom of a hill on a grassy field. He looked to the west to see the mountain forest, which was about an hour’s walk away. He took a few steps past the hill and spotted a village in the distance. Dream smiled to himself, this seemed to be the place. Dream turned back to the hill and out of the corner of his eye, noticed a little pink cherry tree just a little ways away from the hill, a gray gravestone nestled into the grass below it, a detail that never appeared in his nightmares. Curiosity overcame Dream and he decided to take a closer look.

Upon further inspection, Dream noticed that there were little flecks of bright red mixed into the dark tree’s bark. He knelt down to read the inscription on the headstone.

**_Helen Spearhead (19XX-202X)_ **

**_Helen fought valiantly to protect her people, and her determination helped her press on in the heat of battle. May the wyvern that took her life be tormented eternally in the Shadow Forest, and may the Golden Angel care for her in the world beyond._ **

****

_‘Oh gosh, well that's sad, but why do I feel like I've heard of her before? And why do I feel like I've heard that name before, too? ‘Golden Angel’. It feels so familiar.’ Dream thought to himself, standing up and taking a step away from the gravestone, ‘This is weird... The tree’s up that hill, right? I should go there next.’_

He turned around and started making his way up the hill, which gave him a strange feeling. The feeling one has when visiting a childhood home to find it almost exactly how they left it. It was a new feeling, but it was also one that gave him hope. If the tree was here, and this hill was giving him this feeling, it must have something to do with his past. He felt his excitement return, creating little prickles all along his neck and shoulders. This was it, he was finally going to find out where he came from! Dream reached the top of the hill, his soul just about ready to leap out of his chest.

He gasped and stopped dead in his tracks.

“W... what?”

The tree. It was... dead?

Dream felt his hands start to shake as he took another step towards it. It couldn't be. The tree’s thick canopy, the soft brown bark, the apples they were all _gone?_

Alas, it was true. The tree had been burnt to a crisp, its giant black winding branches reaching into the sky, ash wafting off of them from the breeze. The surrounding soil around its roots was scorched black, and some of the surviving grass had started to grow over it. There were branches missing in a few places that must have fallen off during the fire and rotted away over time. The only thing on its scorched branches was a somewhat larger than average blue jay with iridescent blue feathers that was napping on one of the branches.

Dream couldn't believe his eyes. This tree, it had been one of the most repeated things in all of his nightmares. He took a shaky step towards it, blinking rapidly as if to make it disappear like an illusion, but every time he opened his eyes, the blackened husk just stared back at him. Dream stood in front of the tree and ran his fingers over the charred bark. A small chunk of it came off in his hand and hit the ground with a soft thump.

Dream looked down at it sadly, “Who would do this?” he wondered aloud.

The blue jay in the tree blinked open its eyes and stretched. It noticed him and flew down onto his shoulder.

“Eep!” Dream yelped, surprised at how quickly the bird had assumed he was safe to sit on. The bird yawned and Dream hesitantly held out his arm for the bird to perch on. It happily hopped onto his arm. Now that it was closer, he noticed the glowing white spiral patterns that ran all along the edges of its wings and on its fluffy chest.

_‘Birds that glow. Huh. Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.’_

He noticed that the bird's eyes were two different colors. Its left eye was a shining golden color, like a warm sunrise and the right eye was a deep purple, like a cool moonrise had been captured in its eyes. It blinked for a moment and stared at him with a blank expression(as much as birds could emote), its blue feathers shimmering in the sunlight.

Dream was slightly calmed by the animal's presence while also being still very confused. Whatever had happened to the tree he had the strange feeling that the little bird had something to do with it. It almost felt like the bird was reading him like an open book. He shuddered a little, no matter how cute this bird was, the look it gave him was some creepy _shit_ he was not into.

“Um... hello, little bird,” he said awkwardly. The bird edged along his arm and nudged his hand almost affectionately, “Hehe, you want me to pet you?”

The bird nudged his hand again in confirmation.

“Well... okay, I guess.” The bird smiled to itself and picked at its wing feathers for a moment as Dream gently petted the black feathers on the top of its head, “You’re kind of cute, actually.”

The bird looked up at him and smiled, “Really? Thanks!”

Dream froze mid-pat, a look of disbelief on his face. He blinked in confusion at the bird, “D... did you just... talk?”

The bird nodded, “Of course! Why wouldn't I be able to talk?”

Dream was even more confused, “Because birds don't... talk??”

The bird giggled, because apparently birds can do that, “Hehehe! Oh yeah! Sorry, I forgot that wasn't normal, hehe.”

Dream’s mind was racing, he knew AUs could get pretty strange, but magic talking blue jays were _by far_ one of _the_ _weirdest_ things he had ever come across. He moved his arm back nervously, “Um, so what are you? I-I mean um, what's your, uh, name? If you have one,” he said awkwardly, not knowing proper magic-talking-bird etiquette.

“You want to know my name?” the bird asked, excitedly, “Nobody ever wants to know my name!” the bird hopped eagerly, ruffling its feathers.

“Wait, really?” Dream asked sympathetically.

“Yeah!” the bird said, “All anyone ever want to ask me is stuff like,” they put on a mocking tone, “‘Oh where's the golden angel this” and ‘why are all the apples black now that’” the bird huffed, putting on an angry smile, their tone getting more aggressive as they spoke, “And I always say ‘They’re not black they’re _dark INDIGO,_ CAN YOU PLEBS GET _ONE_ THING RIGHT IN YOUR _PATHETIC LI-”_ the bird realized they were yelling and took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

Dream looked at the bird, feeling a mix between awkward and utterly _terrified._ He nodded sheepishly and put on a shy smile, “T-that does sound annoying.”

“Thank you!” the bird said as if this was the first time someone had agreed with them on the subject, “All they ever want to talk about is the stupid tree or their dumb gods and never about me! Pardon my french, but it's bullshit!” The bird motioned to the tree with one wing, “It's not even that _cool!_ Plus it's not like you need a guardian for something _nobody wants to steal!”_ the bird sighed angrily and crossed their arms(wings? It was hard to tell, it seems to be a mix of the two).

“I mean just look at it!” the bird turned and cast a quick glare at the tree before turning back to him, “It's practically worthle-” the bird froze and slowly turned to look back at the burnt tree.

Dream made an awkward ‘tsk’ sound, “Uh, yeah, that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about.”

The bird seemed too caught up in the sight before her to hear him, “Oh. Oh no...” she covered her beak with her wing in shock, “What the fuck?! I was asleep for like five minutes!”

“You didn't know?” Dream asked.

“No!” the bird cried, flying to sit on one of the lower hanging burnt branches and looked back to him, obviously distraught, “How did this happen?”

Dream noticed her cold distress and put on a comforting tone, “I'm sorry, I don't know.”

The bird sank her talons into the charred bark, her creeping distress quickly turning to flickering anger, “You just _had_ to take that weirdo’s offer didn't you, Jay? God- what was I thinking?!” she turned to the tree trunk and hit her little forehead against the bark a few times, “Stupid stupid stupid! Bad bird!”

“Woah woah woah, calm down!” Dream yelped, running up to the branch she was on and trying to stop her from doing that, “What are you talking about? What weirdo?”

The bird sighed angrily, visibly deflating, “Earlier today some tall skeleton dude with big wings and a red cape showed up and offered me a deal. He was hella creepy and I didn't like how he kept calling me ‘starling.’ Like excuse you I am a _blue jay,_ thank you very much.” she huffed and crossed her arms angrily.

That description sounded sort of familiar to Dream, like the name of a relative you met one time at a family gathering and never saw again. The only problem was that Dream had never met anyone like that, “Um, Jay? That's your name, right?” he asked awkwardly.

She perked up a little, “Huh? Oh yeah, thats my name.”

Dream silently congratulated himself for getting her name right, “Cool. Jay, what were you saying about the, um, ‘skeleton dude?’”

Jay nodded, still upset with herself, “Yeah yeah, he said something like, ‘hey, starling. what're you doing?’ and I was like ‘Ugh, my stupid job,’ and he was all ‘oh, would you like a break?’ and I was like ‘yeah, but I cant because I have to guard these stupid apples that nobody wants,’ and then he smiled at me weirdly and said, like, ‘well how about this, you give me a few of those ‘stupid apples’ and I’ll make sure nobody steals the rest while you take a nap,’ and I was like ‘sure, sounds dope. Take as many as you want,’ and then I went to my nest and I fell asleep and had nightmares about a fire and then poof! I wake up here to see that the trees fucking dead! What the hell?!”

Dream felt more awkward, but he decided to bust out his impeccable problem-solving skills, “Um, I’m not quite sure what happened here either. But you know what, how about you and me pop on over to the village and ask them what happened?”

Jay rubbed the space between her eyes with her wing, “Yeah, sure, why the hell not? I have all the free time in the world now! Hooray!” she huffed sarcastically.

Dream sighed quietly, half excited to continue the mystery of ‘what is my life’ and half unsure about the rest of the time he was about to spend here, “Alright, let's get going then.”

The two of them headed in the direction of the village, with Jay flying a bit above Dream and doing the occasional loop-de-loop in the air to pass the time. As they left the eerie husk of a tree behind, Jay struck up a conversation.

“So you asked me what my name was, but I never got yours?” Jay asked, doing a half-hearted spin overhead.

“Oh!” Dream laughed awkwardly, “I guess that was stupid of me, my name is Dream.”

Jay snickered, “Heh, what, were your parents like, hippies or something?”

Dream hugged himself and muttered “I, um... I never knew my parents.”

Jay gasped softly and swooped down to perch on his shoulder nervously, “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!”

Dream waved her off and let her perch on his arm again, “No no, it's okay they're not _dead_ or anything- at least I don't think they are. That's kind of why I'm here actually, I've been having a lot of dreams about this place and I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with my past.”

“Oh, so it's like a ‘self-discovery’ sort of thing?” Jay said, cocking her head to the side.

“Yeah, I guess,” Dream said, “What about you, did you know your parents?”

“No actually, it's really weird,” she said, putting her wing under her beak thoughtfully, “It was like one day I sort of just _existed_ and I immediately just, like, _knew_ I was supposed to guard that dumb tree’s apples.”

“Huh, that's weird. I kind of just _knew_ I was supposed to protect positivity.”

Jay smiled at him, “Yay! We have something in common! We exist without our consent and protect something instinctually!” she cheered sarcastically.

Dream giggled a bit, “Hehehe, I don't know if instinctual is the right way to put it, but yeah, basically.”

They laughed and joked around for a bit longer until they reached the outskirts of the village.

The houses were rustic, most having been built out of stone or wood frames with tile roofs. The dirt road was worn, with some grass growing on the curbsides and a large variety of different footprints on the dirt pathway. It seemed it would have been a quaint rural area, but there were no people in sight. All the curtains were drawn closed and there was an almost hushed silence, like everyone who lived there had abruptly vanished.

“Where is everyone?” Dream whispered.

“I don't know... this is creepy,” Jay whispered back.

Suddenly a loud roar rang out in the distance, followed by the sound of crumbling stone. Jay and Dream both looked at each other and nodded in confirmation, making their way towards the direction of the screeching.

They followed it and eventually came to a clearing that looked like a town square, there was a fountain in the center, and in the eastern edge of the paved area was a tall marble statue of a woman in battle armor holding a sword, a slash of four claw marks at its base. There were shops lining the edges of the town square that sold various goods like shoes, fabric, potions, books.

But what drew their attention was the hulking black creature that paced in front of a shop, its long spiked tail lashing back and forth. A set of feathers jutted out from the back of its head and down along its neck, on its shoulders were a set of bat-like wings. Its head was like a bird of prey with a long sharp beak with sharp fangs that jutted out of its gums. It growled again at the closed shop door.

“COME ON OUT AND FIGHT ME, YOU COWARD! WHAT, DID YOU LOSE THE GUTS TO FACE ME AFTER YOU MURDERED HER?!” the creature shrieked, slashing its claws across the pavement and making a loud screeching sound.

“B-begone demon!” a woman's voice yelled from inside the shop. She sounded like she was trying to act tough, her voice fading into a hiss near the end.

The creature snorted angrily and lashed his tail again, rattling the spikes, “I’LL LEAVE WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, RED!!”

Dream and Jay exchanged looks and split up, Dream approaching the creature and hid behind the fountain while Jay flew overhead and surveyed the area. Dream squinted, trying to get a better visual on the creature and who exactly it was threatening. Now that he was closer, he could see the creature's crimson red eyes and the dark sclera that almost blended into its dark pelt.

“YA KNOW WHAT? I'M NOT PLAYING YOUR CAT AND MOUSE BULLSHIT, RED!” the monster raised a clawed hand and smashed through the window, causing the person inside to start screaming.

“G-go away! I'll kill you! J-just like the deer-spider!” the person inside shouted.

“WHY YOU LITTLE- OW!!” The creature exclaimed in pain and withdrew its arm, revealing a large gash in its palm, “HEY!” The creature yelled, a bright blue acid beginning to drip from its front fangs and sizzle on the ground under it, “THAT'S IT!” the creature sprayed the venom over the door, dissolving little holes in the wood, which allowed the creature to tear the door away and grab the person inside. This, of course, resulted in the person starting to scream as they were dragged out of the building.

“No no no no! Let go of me!” she yelled.

The person was a young woman who looked to be in her late-twenties to early-thirties. She had straight dark brown hair and ginger brown skin, with a splash pattern of freckles that sprayed across her nose. She wore a red tunic and brown leather pants with dark gray boots as she kicked and screamed. What was most striking about her were her warm red eyes which seemed to glint bright red in the sunlight.

The creature held the woman in its claws and chuckled, “Not so tough now, are ya, mousey?” the creature loomed over the woman and opened its jaws, more acid threatening to drip onto the woman's face. The woman screamed in terror and summoned her weapon (a glowing red sword) and tried to prod the beast away.

Dream’s eyes widened and he quickly summoned his bow and glowing blue arrows, aiming for the creature's shoulder and firing. The arrow lodged in between its shoulder blade and wing joint. The creature roared in pain and dropped the woman, turning to glare in his direction, teeth bared as dark blood dripped from its wound. The woman quickly got up and scurried away to safety and Dream edged out from behind the fountain and knocked another arrow, continuing to aim at the creature.

The creature made eye contact with him and huffed angrily, reaching to tear his arrow from its shoulder. The shaft shaped, leaving the arrowhead sticking out awkwardly as the creature roared in pain. It growled at him and stalked closer before slumping forward and clutching its head as if in pain, its wings flexing and unflexing almost randomly. Dream’s aim faltered for a moment in confusion and he watched as the creature groaned and opened its eyes.

It's... eight eyes?

It seemed impossible, but Dream quickly realized that the creature was transforming. Its claws elongated to sharp points and its teeth sunk back into its gums and were replaced with tens of hundreds of long, needle-like teeth. The skin on its wings seemed to sink into the creature's flesh, leaving behind only the long, black, boney wing frame. The creature thrashed its head and looked back up to him, all eight eyes’ pupils completely vanished as the red iris took over its eyes. It scraped its claws slowly against the stone pavement and roared.

“Awww, look at you. Pathetic,” it sneered, taking a step towards him. The creature inhaled deeply through its nose, as if it was smelling something. It paused for a moment and then grinned evilly and spoke again, its voice smooth and strangely familiar, “Are you sure people really like you?”

_‘It's right you know.’_ his mind whispered.

Dream’s eyes widened slightly and he let the arrow go in shock. The arrow skimmed the side of the creature's shoulder, searing a rough line in its flesh. But the creature didn't make a sound, instead it stood in silence as the wound started healing itself over almost instantly.

_‘W-what is this thing?!’_ Dream thought, quickly summoning and knocking another arrow.

“How would you know?” it asked with a crazed smile, its voice turning bouncier and cheerier, “They wouldn't be able to tell the difference.”

“T-thats not true!” Dream shouted, casting a quick glance at the sky for Jay. He saw her dive behind the building the woman had hidden behind. He looked back at the creature, which had crept closer. He aimed towards the space between its eyes, “Not another step o-or I’ll shoot!” he threatened.

The creature snickered and ignored his threat, “What about all the other friends you've made? They're probably addicted to you, too. Why don't you just leave them and move on? You know what? Don't answer that. The only reason you _haven't_ is because you’ve actually gotten _attached to them!”_ Its voice turned sly and mocking.

_‘Its right, Dream. The only reason you couldn't affect Ink was because he didn't have a soul.’_ his mind said in agreement, _‘Now that he's got a new one, he's probably getting addicted to you, too.’_

“N-no, Ink _is_ my friend!” Dream yelped, not realizing he was speaking aloud.

The creature smirked, “C’mon, we both know I'm right. After all,” something clicked in Dream’s mind as it spoke, “anxiety _never_ lies.”


	14. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I hast returned with the new chapter, as promised!  
> Ngl I'm stupidly hyped to show off all the OCs I've made for this (since its idea and story has existed for about a year and a half now). Theres so many original characters that its becoming more of a Glitchtale situation, rather than just a regular fanfic(don't worry, your favs are safe). But hey, you read the description, so you guys knew what you were getting into.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy!~  
> ~Doggo

_'Its... my anxiety? How? How is that possible?'_ Dream's mind was racing as he felt his aim falter.

"Y-you're my anxiety?" Dream shouted, taking a shaky step backwards.  
  


Anxiety raised an eyebrow, "Not _yours specifically,_ but yeah, I'm anxiety."  
  


Dream thought for a moment, "What would it take for you to go away?"  
  


Anxiety sneered at him, its voice flickering between his anxiety's and its own, "Why would I tell you? You're just going to try to kill me if I resist, right?" Dream's aim lowered again a little and Anxiety scoffed, "Typical."  
  
  


Dream shook his head, trying to resist agreeing with the creature. He aimed at the creature's heart and made eye contact (though it was kind of hard, it had eight eyes after all). Anxiety seemed to take a step backwards precariously, as if it knew something he didn't.

Dream took this as an opportunity, "I mean it! I-if you take another step closer, I'll shoot!"  
  
  


"Shit..." Anxiety muttered under its breath, "Fine, but I'll get my revenge eventually. Hopefully next time, you won't be standing in my way," and with that, the skin on its wings started seeping back out of the bony frame and attaching themselves to its sides. The other six eyes sunk back into Anxiety's head and the sharp needle-teeth sunk back into its gums as well, making way for the sharp fangs that replaced them.

"See ya, Princey," Anxiety said with a smirk before spreading its wings and launching into the air, sending up a cloud of dust in its wake. Dream watched it slowly make its way west, flying somewhat haphazardly across the sky.   
  
  


Dream sighed and unsummoned his bow, taking a shaky breath and trying to not hyperventilate.. He wiped the little beads of sweat from his forehead and turned to the building the woman had hidden behind. He made his way over, avoiding the little puddles of acid that were scattered all along the paths that Anxiety had made in its wreckage. He looked around the corner wall of the store and saw the woman who was kneeling on the ground and Jay, who was perched on a wheelbarrow. The two seemed to be having a semi-aggressive conversation.  
  
  


"Look, lady, I know you're kind of shaken up, but-"

"Shaken up?! I almost just _died!"_ the woman whisper-yelled (though it was more just yelling, trying to disguise itself as a whisper) as Jay gave a disappointed sigh, "Plus, I need to go see if he's okay!"

_"You_ need to stay hidden until it's safe to come out," Jay said in annoyance, "Besides, he'll be fine, he looked like he had control of the situation-"

"But I want to help him _kill that thing!"_ the woman whined.

"Uh- hey," Dream butted in awkwardly, both of them turned to him. Jay sighed in relief and the woman gasped excitedly.

"Dream!! You're back!" the woman said, standing up hastily and running up to him to give him a hug.

"Ack- um hello??" Dream squeaked, having been caught off guard by the strange introduction, "Do I um-" Dream backed out of her grasp. "Do I know you?"  
  
  


The woman's smile faltered slightly, "Y-you don't recognize me?"   
  
  


Dream shook his head, "U-um, no I'm sorry."

  
The woman fiddled with her hands, muttering to herself, "Has it really been that long...? Or maybe it's the bangs?" 

Dream felt almost trapped in the awkward silence. Thankfully, Jay took notice of the obscenely long pause and butted in, "Hey, uh, how about we exchange names? Maybe that'll ring a few bells. I'll go first, my name is Jay."

The woman's head perked up, and she looked at Jay in surprise, "You actually _have_ a name?"

Jay scoffed in offence, "Well duh! You jerkwads just never bothered to ask!"

Before they could start arguing again, Dream decided to speak up, "Well let's not think about that, um what's your name? I'm Dream- wait, crap, you already know that-"  
  


The woman seemed to quickly shift her attention to him, her shocked face quickly turning into a joking smile "I can't believe you don't recognize me, Dream. It's me, Kinen. We were friends when we were kids!"   
  


"Friends?" Dream asked hopefully, "We were friends? Really?" he heard the slight hint of desperateness in his voice, but he decided to ignore it.  
  


Kinen nodded, "Yeah! We would hang out like, _all the time."_  
  


"Wow! So you knew me when I was younger?" Kinen smiled somewhat snarkily and Dream felt his excitement building again, "In that case, can you help me out with something?"  
  


Kinen's soul started emitting prickling excitement and happiness, "I'd love to! But first I need to tell everyone it's safe to come out, if you don't mind."  
  


Dream nodded "Sure, I can-" he felt Jay shoot him a look and he corrected himself, "um, _we_ can wait over here."  
  


Kinen smiled and gave him a thumbs up, "Cool! Ooh, this is so exciting!" she hurried off back to the park area. Dream peeked around the corner, Jay standing on his head and peeking as well. They watched as Kinen walked over to the fountain, hopped up onto the stone lip of the fountain and take a deep breath before shouting, "Alright everyone, it's safe to come out now!"  
  


All around them, the sounds of locks clicking and doors creaking open started to come to life. People, more precisely humans, started coming out of all the buildings and houses. It was a small crowd at first, but then it became apparent that there were at least a hundred and fifty people there, all their clothes in a full rainbow of colors. Though, strangely enough, none of them (aside from Kinen) wore red. Dream decided to sneak around the back of the nearby shops to get closer. He ended up hiding behind a tree in front of a gardening store so he could see a side view of the crowd. Jay decided to sit on a branch and watch through the leaves.

The murmurs amongst the crowd began to die down as Kinen began speaking, "Alright, do we have everybody? Is everyone here?"  
  
  


Suddenly a man's voice cried out, "Peter?! Where's Peter?!" Dream watched as a young man scrambled up to the front of the crowd, Dream could tell he was crying.

"Who's Peter?" Kinen asked the man, leaning down to help him up onto the fountain. The man took her hand and helped himself up.   
  


The guy had tears falling down his panicked face, "Peter is my boyfriend- has anyone seen him?" he shouted as he turned to the crowd. Kinen made an expression that seemed like she was uncomfortable with something.  
  


A hushed whisper broke out among the crowd and Kinen sighed rather loudly, "I'll um, I'll send out a search party for him, okay?" she said to the man.   
  
The man sniffled and nodded, "T-thank you. Please find him, Ms. Spearhead."

  
  


Kinen seemed to shudder at this sentiment, "W-will do, sir," she turned back to the crowd as the man rejoined them, "So other than that, do we have everyone?"

The crowd responded with a mixed reply of "yeahs" and "uh huh's." Kinen smiled to herself and continued, "Great! Now, as you all know whenever the demons or any of the monsters come down from the mountain, you will all hide while I fight them off."

"Especially the demons, they're the worst!" someone shouted from the crowd.

"Indeed, but today I almost lost my life," the crowd gasped and Kinen continued, "Yes, everyone, the Shadow demon had me in its grasp. It was about to spit its _disgusting_ acid on me, when suddenly, it screeched in pain and dropped me. I looked up to see that it had been shot with an arrow made of blue light." The crowd broke out in excited whispers and Kinen waited a moment before continuing, "I looked over and I couldn't believe my eyes, it was the Savior himself!"

A loud gasp followed by some cheering came from the crowd, coupled with a few people shouting in excitement,

"He has returned!"

"The prophecy is coming true!"

"We're all saved!"

"Hooray!"   
  
  


Kinen seemed pleased with herself and Dream looked over to see that Jay had perched herself on his shoulder again.

"Are they talking about me?" he whispered.  
  


Jay smirked and whispered back, "Yeah, from what I gather, you're basically like a god to these people."

"But I'm not a god!" Dream hissed nervously through his teeth.

"And I'm not a real blue jay, dude. Shit happens."

Dream turned his attention back to the crowd. Kinen seemed to still be talking.

"...and though we have suffered many losses, it will all be worth it knowing that we won't go down the prophecy's... _other_ path," All the humans seemed to shudder at the mention of this "other path."  
  


"Is he still here?" someone shouted from the crowd, "Where is he?" Dream managed to see who was talking this time, it was a teenage girl, maybe sixteen years old. She had peachy skin and curly ginger hair that was cut just below her shoulders. She wore a green dress and from where Dream was standing, he could just barely see that she had emerald green eyes.

  
  


The crowd responded with similar questions,

"Yeah, where is he?"

"Can we see him?"

"Are you sure he's really here?"  
  
  


Kinen summoned her sword and sliced through the air, "Silence! He is here, in this very town square..." Kinen swung her sword and rested the tip of the blade on the stone. "Want proof?" the crowd murmured in agreement. "Okay then, everyone, countdown from ten. Ready? Ten... nine..."  
  


Dream zipped back behind the tree, his anxiety was shooting through the roof, "Crap crap crap crap crap! She wants me to come out when they get to one!" 

"Then do that," Jay said simply.

"Eight... seven..."

"I can't just _do that!_ What if I trip and mess up in front of everyone?!" Dream squeaked, duckling behind the tree again, "O-or I disappoint them somehow?! What if they all laugh at me?!"

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Jay muttered to herself, flying behind him and hovering there, "Look, dude, I can tell you're about to explode-"  
  


"Six! Five!"  
  


"-but you gotta man up and get out there!"  
  


"Y-y'know what? I can do this!" Dream peeked out from behind the tree again.  
  


"Four! Three!" The crowd seemed eight times bigger than before.  
  


_"I can't do this!"_ Dream yelped, hiding behind the tree again.  
  
  


"Two!"

"Oh for the love of-" Jay somehow used her legs to shove him from behind with enough force to send him stumbling out from behind the tree, "Get out there, marshmallow boy! I believe in you!" she called out behind him encouragingly.  
  


"Wait, no!"

  
"One!"

Dream tried to regain his balance and not fall over before looking up and into the sea of people staring at him with wide eyes and shocked expressions. He jumped up like a cat, trying to stand up straight, (or as straight as someone like him could get) feeling like he was, indeed, about to explode. He took a deep breath, held up his hand shakily and waved to all of them, "U-um... hi?"


	15. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> awemawaeawemawaeawemawae aaAAAWEEEEEEEEE-
> 
> so uh i wrote this in a day so as of this post im not going to rush myself and post new chapters whenever i can get them done(bc as ive said before i am adhd mess and get distracted by my own hands)
> 
> im literally abt to go on a three hour drive so uh stay quirky or whatever buhbye
> 
> -
> 
> Hey, hi, hello, editor Doggo here, uh yeah it literally JUST occurred to me that i labeled this as chapter five instead of chapter six so im just here to let you guys know that i fixed that(after eight days of fucking ignorance) as well as some minor errors in punctuation and making the texting and phone stuff look nicer. So theres no MAJOR game changers for the story.  
> If you're still reading this bit, sorry, pal, its over. Read the darn fanfiction now, please.

Dream was not expecting to be here for more than a few hours. He was also not expecting for his phone to stop working either. Nor was he expecting for everything to be so freaking confusing. He expected to be here for about three hours (maybe four) wandering around, meeting people from his past, and figuring out who he was.

But apparently whatever sociopathic god was controlling the world today had other plans for him.

A celebration thrown in his honor with lots of lights, food, music, and banners decorated with pictures of a sun inside of a fire. People cheerily danced in the town square where only hours before he had practically been fighting something to the death. Shops had moved merchandise outside to what looked like carnival stands, booths lined the western side of the town square with various games. There were tables set up all around the statue(which had been moderately repaired), most of them with one or two people occupying it.

Jay had been rather grumpy about the whole ordeal, complaining that they never threw festivals for _her_ when she came into town. After a bit more moping about this she decided to go and mess with the people running an apple bobbing booth, hiding at the bottom of the barrel and abruptly smashing herself into the face of anyone who dared poke their face under the surface. She would be found out soon enough, but until then she would troll as many people as she could.

Dream, on the other hand, was very close to having an anxiety attack. Well, that's not true, but it sure _felt_ like it. All these people he didn't know, who somehow knew him, had thrown a festival in his honor because he was some sort of powerful deity to them, meaning he was the center of attention for the rest of the night? Basically a living nightmare.

So naturally, he found a small quiet alley away from most of the action, hid behind a giant wooden crate and proceeded to scream.

That was a bit of an over exaggeration, it was more of a silent "eeeeeeee" noise followed by him trying to do breathing exercises to calm down. After a bit of this, he (once again) checked his phone, as if by some miracle it had decided to start working again.

8:55 pm

Sunday, August 17, 2036

Notifications

14 Missed Calls From **Cross <3**

5 new messages from **Cross <3**

2 missed call from **Inky Stinky**

Dream sighed and unlocked his phone, deciding to (counterproductively) reread Cross' messages for the fourth time that night.

Yesterday, 3:15 pm

**< (Ik you're working rn but i just wanted to let u knw that Error is coming over on wednesday)**

(Okay, did Slinky get his elipsity meds today? )>

Read 3:20 pm

**< (yeah, dont worry hes fine :))**

(Ok just checking :3)>

Read: 3:21 pm

Today, 11:45 am

**< (How are things going over there?)**

Today, 11:55 am

**< (You okay?)**

Today12:19 am

**< (Babe please answer me)**

Today, 2:43 pm

**< ( i just got off the phone with Ink, he says he hasn't seen you all day. What's going on?)**

Today, 5:03 pm

**< ( Dream you're scaring me please answer your phone)**

Dream sighed and turned off his phone, trying to ignore the shakiness in his hands. He _could_ just teleport back home and ruin the surprise to make sure Cross knew he was ok, but for some reason he couldn't(and believe me, he _tried._ Pretty much as soon as they started putting up the festival decorations, as a matter a fact). For some reason whenever he tried there just seemed to be a barrier stopping him. It felt like the Multiverse had just said "Nah, you don't get to do that right now," and stripped him of that power. However, that was the least of his worries. It was well past sundown and Dream was beginning to fear that he might have to spend the night in this place(which he had very quickly learned was called "Kujo Village").

_'Ugh, this was a stupid idea."_ he thought bitterly, knocking his fist against his forehead in frustration, _'God, Dream, you're such an idiot! You COULD have told Cross what you were doing and told him not to worry, but NOOO, you had to go and lie to him and now you're stuck here with no plan, no cell phone signal, and no way out. Great job!'_

Dream bit his tongue reflexively and tried to calm the seething anger that was growing in his soul. It wasn't his fault that there wasn't a way out of here, it was just an awful coincidence. Everything would be okay as long as he didn't lose hope. He took a few deep breaths and sheepishly poked his head out from behind the wooden crate.

To his surprise he was met face to face with the teenage girl from earlier that day.

"Eep!" she yelped, jumping a bit in surprise.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" Dream apologized hastily, "I-I didn't mean to scare you-"

The girl shook her head with an apologetic smile, "N-no it's okay, you just caught me off guard, is all."

With each passing second Dream felt worse and worse about the situation, "Oh gosh I'm sorry- do you need to get by?" he took a few steps away from her, "I'll get out of your way-"

"No, it's okay, really! I just wasn't expecting anybody to be here..." she said softly, playing with her hands and looking at the ground.

Dream buried his face in his hands in embarrassment, "Oh god, I'm sorry-"

"Don't be! You're the Angel!" she said, "If anything I should be sorry for scaring you."

Dream peeked through his fingers and righted himself, "U-uh I'm the what?"

"The Angel! The one from the shadow demon's prophecy!" She said excitedly, "The one from all the legends! You fought great evils to protect us! You defeated our brother, the Shadow Devil, all those years ago after the Great Mountain Massacre! You're the one who's going to complete our prophecy and make all our suffering worth it." She said hopefully.

Dream was immediately perplexed by this, _'I don't have a brother... wait, do I have a brother?'_ he thought, _'I mean I don't_ think _I do, but these people would know better than me-'_ Dream blinked in realization, "W-wait, what prophecy?"

The girl's eyes widened, "Oh my gosh, you don't know?!" Dream shook his head, noticing the girl was practically vibrating with excitement. She seemed to mostly be having a conversation with herself at this point, "Ooo, am I gonna be the one to tell him about it? Oh that'd be so cool, but I should ask Kinen first- ooh, but I'll never get this chance again-"

Dream scratched the back of his head nervously, "Um, you don't _have_ to tell me, I was just-"

"Okay so like," the girl interrupted him, speaking very quickly, "Thirteen years ago after the tree burned down, the shadow demon came down from the mountain, but it was like- possessed by something and it was super creepy because its eyes were like, bright orange and we all thought we were gonna die, but it didn't _do_ anything so we were all like 'what's going on?' and then it started talking and it gave us our prophecy and it goes like this;" she took a deep breath, her eyes beginning to glow a soft green as she recited the alleged prophecy,

"When golden eyes have turned to stone and when a great tree has fallen and grown, when five souls have been lost to their pain inside, when the monster of thin bones has been slain, the Angel will return to end your pain." She gestured to him excitedly, "He must travel the Dark Forest to find the Shadow King, assisted by the stone eyed being. While they travel alone and in danger, red must overcome their struggle or die alone, buried in rubble. Angel beware, to speak the truth you must fight an evil. But if silence is what you choose, a great evil's face will shine through..." The girl was quiet for a moment, as if considering something. She shook her head and continued, her excitement faded, "However, if the Angel never returns, in a world of all worlds his body shall burn. The Shadow King will wait in vain and end his own pain in flames. Demons will surround the stone eyed, telling his all truths and no lies. The poor soul will lose his mind, the dark angel's wrath will make him blind. Pain and anger so unbearable, the stone eyed will turn so terrible. His power, a fearsome, fiery wrath, he will kill anyone, friend or foe in his path. The hope of all will surely die, as lives are lost to the stone eyes."

Dream was quiet for a moment before he spoke, his voice dripping with concern, "...That sounds terrible."

The girl nodded, "I-it is... b-but!" She perked up suddenly, a new feeling of hope and joy beginning to radiate from her soul, "N-now that you're here none of that's gonna happen!" She smiled at him, tearing up a little, "I-it's all gonna be worth it."

Dream looked at her in quiet surprise and hesitantly gave the girl (who was about his height)one of his signature squishing hugs, hoping to comfort her. The girl seemed surprised at first but after a moment she hugged back, crying quietly.

"We're gonna be okay, Treetop..." she whispered to herself between sobs, "It's almost over."

Dream wanted to ask who "Treetop" was, but decided to keep to himself until she backed out of the hug (which after a moment she did). She let go of him, chuckling and wiping her tears.

"Heh heh, thanks. You're just as nice as they said you'd be." she smiled softly.

Dream blushed a little, smiling nervously, "I have a lot of practice. Oh and uh, I never got your name, what is it?"

The girl seemed a bit surprised by him asking this, but she tried to hide it and replied, "M-my names Lacie, you?"

"Dream."

Lacie smiled, seemingly blinking a few tears out of her eyes, "Thank you Dream, I really needed that."


	16. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After almost two weeks I've finally finished the new chapter! Hooray! I would have had it done by Saturday, but my gf absolutely insisted that I take a two day break because apparently the fact that I haven't slept in four days is bad (actually she just sang "Take A Break" from Hamilton at me until I caved in) 
> 
> In case you missed it (which I'm guessing you did) I went back to the prologue and re-wrote the descriptions of Dream, Nightmare, and Lucid in sections 1&5\. I did this to make them better fit the story  
> Also, just in case it wasn't clear, current Dream is in his 'newer' design, minus the weird half scarf thing and with shorts instead of pants.
> 
> anyways, i hope you enjoy this chapter and that you aren't too mad at me for being gone for so long ^^'

It was close to midnight and Jay had perched herself on top of a whiskey barrel outside of a pub, feeling lost. She had gotten some people to talk to her, but they all seemed to say the same thing when she asked about what happened to the tree.

“That creepy old thing? Burned down thirteen years ago, along with Spearhead.”

“...creepy old thing...”

“...burned down...”

“...thirteen years ago...”

These words seemed to spin around in her mind, repeating and layering over each other like a hurricane of confusion and disbelief. It felt impossible, but what other explanation could there have been? Everyone she had asked had said the same thing, so it had to have been true. And if that was the case, what was she supposed to do now? She had always _joked_ about hating her job, but now? She had no tree to guard. She had no apples to protect from thieves. She didn't even have a nest to defend. What was she supposed to do with herself now? That tree had been her purpose, it was the only thing that made her feel like she _mattered._ But now?

Now... now she didn't.

She’d been asleep thirteen _whole_ _years._ She missed an entire decade of her _life,_ and for what? A fucking nap? What was she thinking, leaving a suspicious stranger alone with the one thing she was supposed to protect? _Who knows_ what he could have done to her while she was out!

_‘He could have burned it down! O-or done some kinda voodoo magic on me while I was asleep! Deus, I'm an idiot!’_ she smacked herself in the face with her wing, _‘What am I supposed to do now? I don't even-’_

“Hey Jay, are you alright? You don't look so good.”

She looked over at Dream and sighed, “Huh, really? Maybe you should try learning you've been asleep for a whole ass decade and your entire purpose for existing has been _burned to the ground.”_ she huffed angrily.

“I- oh...” Dream’s expression softened, “Jay I’m... I’m so sorry.”

“Dont be, its my fucking fault,” she grunted through her beak, “I shouldn't have been such an idiot.”

Dream walked closer and stroked her neck feathers gently, “It's not your fault, you didn't know that would happen.”

“Yeah, but I should have known better-,”

“Alright everyone, can I have your attention please?” Kinen shouted over the noise. Everyone turned their attention to the fountain where Kinen, once again, stood tall before the crowd. The music and general chatter cut off as everyone paid attention to her announcement.

Kinen smiled to herself, “I would like to thank you all for coming to this celebration in honor of our angels' return. It has taken a long time for all things to come in order, both good,” she cast a glance to the two of them before returning her gaze to the crowd, “and bad. I offer my condolences to the family of the five. Let's all have a moment of silence for the fallen; Fennec, Anthony, Keira, Malcom, and Charlie.” A hushed silence fell over the crowd, somehow they became more quiet than they had been before.

After a few seconds of silence Kinen continued, “We have suffered long enough, and we have lost many lives to the demon’s attacks. However, our suffering will soon be over. The pieces are all in place for us, now all that is left is for the stone eyed and Angel to begin their quest. Then and only then will we be free.”

“Let us raise a glass to our freedom!” one man shouted from the crowd, hoisting his whiskey shot in the air.

“Freedom!” shouted a few others.

“Raise your hand to the end of our pain!” a woman shouted, pumping her fist in the air.

“The end of our pain!” a few more joined in.

“They'll tell the story of tonight!” shouted a young man tenaciously.

“Our future is bright!” the rest of the crowd shouted eagerly, “Huzzah!”

Kinen smiled confidently, “May your hearts be pure and your futures prosperous! You’re all dismissed, goodnight everyone!”

The crowd dispersed, some people staying behind to dismantle the carnival stands and games as a thin air of excitement hung in the air. Dream cast a worrisome glance to the dark sky, the crescent moon hanging high among the clouds. He panicked and pulled out his phone, checking the time.

12:47 pm

Sunday, August 19, 2036

**Notifications:**

3 missed calls from **Cross <3**

_‘Oh gosh! Poor Cross, he's probably so worried- god what do I do? Wait… what's that?’_ he noticed a new notification that seemed to have just appeared.

1 new message from **Unknown Number**

_‘...What?’_ Dream hovered his finger over the notification, debating as to whether or not he should open it. Eventually he gave in to his curiosity and clicked on it.

Today, 11:47 pm

**< (Hello, Dream. You’ve been gone quite a**

**a long time. Welcome home.)**

**< (And what a handsome gentleman you've**

**grown into, may I add. It's been quite a long time**

**hasn't it? I've missed you, little host.)**

Reading the message sent a shiver through Dream’s body. Was someone watching him? He glanced around quickly, everyone seemed to have their attention on other tasks. His phone vibrated, a new message had popped up.

**< (Come on, darling. It’s rude not to reply.)**

_‘What the...?’_ Dream hesitantly typed out a reply and sent it. To his surprise, it went through.

(Hello? Who is this?)>

**< (Aw, that's sweet. You just love making**

**me talk about myself, don't you?)**

(What do you mean? Who is this?)>

**< (How sweet! I don't have time for this.)**

**< (I'll make this short. Stay out of my way**

**and nothing bad will happen to you, or to**

**anyone else. Get in my way, however, and**

**you'll get to meet more of my children.**

**Do I make myself clear?)**

_‘Their... children? What the hell is going on here?’_ Dream shakily typed out another response, having to re-type certain words because his fingers kept hitting the wrong keys.

(Is that a threat?)>

**< (Only if it needs to be, old friend.)**

_‘Old... friend?’_

**< (I must be leaving now. Farewell for**

**now, darling. I'll be watching you :))**

Just as Dream began to type out a response, his phone battery died.

“What?! No, come back!” Dream whisper-shrieked, desperately mashing the power button in a confused panic.

“You good, pal?” Jay piped up. He forgot she was literally right next to him.

Dream jolted, nearly dropping his phone in surprise, _“Noeverythinghereisweirdandstupidandmyphonejustdied!”_ Dream slapped a hand over his mouth in embarrassment, he hated when he did that. He had no idea why he tended to speak in this language from time to time, though most of the time it happened when he was startled or caught off guard.

Or drunk.

Mostly when he was drunk.

Jay rolled her eyes and replied, _“Oh chill out, you fussy bitch. You don't need that thing anyways, it's just a little box.”_

Dream stared at her in silent shock, Jay stared back. The tension was so thick that if it had an ass and you slapped it, it would have jiggled. After a moment, Dream spoke, “You... understood that? What language is that?” The language that had come to him in mysterious bursts since as long as he could remember was an actual _thing_?

Jay smirked in amusement, “It's _called_ Lat-”

“Alright, you two!” Kinen popped up from seemingly out of nowhere, scaring the absolute bejeezus out of both of them, with a peppy smile, “We should head over to my place for the night. I mean, we wouldn't want our beloved Angel sleeping on the streets, now would we?”

Dream tried to collect himself, seeing as he probably looked like an absolute trainwreck of a person, “Uh- yeah! I mean- um, _no_ we wouldn't!” he felt himself begin to crumple into a little ball like a piece of paper, “ I mean I'm not _opposed_ to that, I've slept in worse conditions- crap! I shouldn't have said that-”

Jay covered his mouth with one wing, thankfully shutting him up, “Yeah, let's get going, please.”

Kinen smiled, looking a bit confused before grabbing Dream’s other hand, “Okie doki then! C’mon, it's this way!” She turned and started pulling him in the direction of the many streets leading away from the plaza, (this particular one leading north from the plaza).

_**~ A bit later ~** _

“And here we are!” Kinen announced when they got there, “This is my house!! It used to be just my mother and I living here, but y’know, stuff happened.” She twirled around, smiling at them, “Well, whaddya think?”

“Well, it's...”

The house was one of the biggest out of all of the houses he had seen so far, with two floors and a balcony on one of the side windows, the dark sienna house was intimidating to say the least. It was set apart from the rest of the town, with a tall picket fence surrounding its borders. It's dark roof tiles hung like crooked teeth in some areas, as if they had been knocked out of place with brute force. There was a large oak tree in the front yard, with only a single broken tree swing hanging from its crooked branches. Another tree was significantly closer to the house, only a little ways away from the front of the house. What was off putting about it were the dozens of claw marks scraped into the cobblestone path directly below it, a few hanging lanterns casting grim shadows against the stone. They were fainter just a little ways away from the tree, but they seemed to have been scraped rather spastically afterwards, like someone had taken a giant cat and dragged its scrabbling claws away and into the air.

“It's what?” Kinen asked.

“It's nice.”

“It’s creepy as fuck.”

Dream shot Jay a quick glare and she sighed, “I mean it's _so pretty,_ Kinen.” She said begrudgingly, _“I hate you.”_ She muttered under her breath.

Dream smirked a little, _“Not as much as I hate myself.”_ he joked. It took a few seconds for him to realize what he had just said, _‘Wait, did I just...?’_

Kinen giggled, throwing him off that train of thought, “It's okay, I get that a lot. This place is like, _really_ old. I'd be lying if I said it was a hundred years old, but it's pretty close.” She turned and began walking towards the big oak tree, “Anyways, c’mon, I'll give you guys the tour!”

Dream looked into the dark sky, “But shouldn't we be getting inside? It's really dark out...” He trailed off, Kinen didn't seem to hear him over her own excitement.

Jay gave him a playful nudge from where she was perched(on his shoulder, of course, she didn't really have a choice), “Dude, just let her have her fun. I don't know this lady that well, but from the way she's acting, I think this is the first time she's had friends over in a while.”

“But...” Dream began, but he couldn't find a reason to argue with her. Kinen did seem a bit over excited. He sighed, “Okay.”

“Cool!” Jay fluttered off of his shoulder, “Let's go!” She started flying after Kinen.

“Right behind you!”

After a short tour of the front yard and some stories about the big tree and swing (and a back gate which lead to a community garden), Kinen showed them to the second tree. Her bubbly demeanor seemed to be slightly dampened, but it was just _barely_ enough to be noticeable, “Oh, this one’s got an awesome story! You see those claw marks?” She pointed to the dozens of scratches on the cobblestone path.

“Yeah, what about ‘em?” Jay asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well in our prophecy,” she turned to Dream, quickly muttering, “which Lacie said she already told you about, Dream,” She turned back to the both of them, continuing, “There was this line about a monster of thin bones, which was about the demon we called ‘the Deer-Spider.’ And in order for the prophecy to continue, someone had to kill it.” She smirked pettily to herself, “So took it upon myself to do just that. It was hard, but I managed to lure it here with some... _live bait_ ,and catch it in a good old fashioned slipknot trap. It came to the village, saw the bait, went for it, then BAM!” Kinen clasped her hands together excitedly, an almost crazed smile on her face, “It got caught in the trap! It was hanging upside down, trying to drag itself away, but it was scratching up my nice cobblestone path, which was very rude.”

She sighed as if it was still annoying her, but continued in the same excited manner as before, “So, without wasting any time, I summoned my trusty sword, Mara,” she summoned her sword and swung it towards the tree’s trunk heroically, “and with one slash of my blade, I chopped its head off!” she said triumphantly.

Kinen unsummoned her sword and dusted her hands off, “Then the horrible thing started thrashing and bleeding everywhere, so I cut it down and stabbed it a few times just to put it out of its misery.” She said casually, as if she was talking about a beloved dog turned rabid and not a creature experiencing indescribable amounts of pain.

She huffed in annoyance, “But I was wearing my favorite pair of white gloves, which was a bad move on my part, so they got blood on them and for some reason, it just _won't wash out.”_ She crossed her arms and pouted to herself like a child who had spilled chocolate sauce all over their white rabbit toy.

“Thats... a shame,” Dream said cautiously. In all his years of Mulitiverse travel, he knew brutal decapitation and corpse mauling existed, sure, but it wasn't something he heard about (or witnessed) often, especially in the weird gloating manner Kinen seemed to be going about in. He looked to Jay, who had perched on one of the branches overhead, she had her wing over her beak and she looked like she might vomit at any second.

“I know!” Kinen exclaimed, “I still like to wear them though, it makes me feel powerful, y’know?” She smiled and flexed one arm, showing off how her muscles rippled. It would have been cool if she was talking about a cool sports trophy and not evidence of demon murder, she clapped both hands together, giving an apologetic smile, “Anyways, we should really be getting inside, it's probably half past midnight by now. Sorry I kept you both out here so long.” She chuckled a bit.

“Y-yeah probably, i-it's okay though,” Dream chuckled nervously, eyeing the dark sky in search of any giant black spiky things hurtling down from above to eat them.

“Great, c’mon!” Kinen ran over to the front door, Dream and Jay following behind her.

The inside of the house seemed nice and much much better decorated than the outside. There were photos on the walls of Kinen and her family members, most consisting of a man (probably her father), a woman (most definitely her mother), and a little Kinen all doing various things. A younger (maybe ten year old) Kinen holding a glowing red sword (which he recognised from earlier as “Mara”), Kinen holding a scrawny fish on a wire with a excited and proud smile, her father in the background giving a proud thumbs up from a river than went up nearly to his knees, Kinen and her mother at a birthday party, Kinen blowing out two birthday candles in the shape of the number thirteen, things like that. A few of them had just Kinen and a brown wolfy-looking husky in them. Dream looked around as they rounded the corner to the carpeted staircase, he didn't see any signs of a dog living there, not even a chew toy.

As they started up the stairs (which seemed to be a thousand times bigger than he had imagined) Dream tried to make conversation with Kinen (since Jay was being a quiet little bitch), “So, Kinen, do you like dogs?” Dream asked, thinking wistfully of Slinky and his little doofy puppy paws.

“Of course!” She replied cheerily, “Dogs are loyal to you and love you no matter what, it's something I really admire. They don't not hang out with you when you mess up, or hate you when you say the wrong thing, and they aren't mean to you because you make a mistake. People should be more like dogs, in my opinion.”

Something about her tone made that sentiment feel a little like she was hinting at something about herself, something that made Dream think perhaps she wasn't as loved by the rest of the villagers as much as he originally thought.

“I...” Kinen began somewhat hesitantly, “I _used_ to have a dog.”

Dream perked up, “Yeah?”

“Mm-hm, I got him as a present on my twelfth birthday, heh. I named him ‘Bear.’ You probably saw some of the pictures of him in the hallway, he was a very good dog.”

Dream nodded, knowing full well she couldn't see him, “I bet he was. What happened to him?”

Kinen stopped at the top of the stairs, one of her hands holding onto the railing and the other tensing into a fist. Dream stopped. She was quiet for a moment before she spoke, “The... the Walking Eye killed him.”

“O-oh,” Dream felt his excitement fade, “God, I'm sorry that happened to you, Kinen... I take it ‘the Walking Eye’ is another demon?”

“Tore him apart,” she breathed shakily, crackles of glowing red magic appearing around her fist,“When I finally managed to get it away from him, it was too late. He was dead.” Kinen sniffled, her voice quivering, “And then that- that _thing_ had the audacity to _laugh_ at Bear. Laugh at his _corpse._ I- I wanted to kill it- I tried to kill it- I did! But the damn thing teleported away before I could even land a hit on it.”

Dream stood in shocked silence, unsure of what to say to comfort her. He tried to say something but Kinen interrupted him with a low chuckle, “Heh heh... that's why I wasn't ashamed when I saw the demons cry over the Deer-Spider’s body... Why I hung it from the branches of the tree where that damn Shadow demon took my mother's life.” Small teardrops hit the floor with a soft _pat-pat-pat_ and Kinen continued, “Because I got to watch them suffer for a change. Because they should get to know what it feels like to have the ones you care about murdered and put on display for everyone to see.”

Silence hung in the air as both Dream and Jay were at a loss for words. Kinen straightened up and wiped away her tears, turning back to them with an apologetic smile, “S-sorry, got a little emotional there, didn't I? Nevermind, c’mon, the guest bedroom is just around this corner.” Kinen disappeared behind the wall and Dream followed in stunned silence. She had gone from happy, to sad, to vengeful, back to happy so fast it could have given Dream whiplash.

When they caught up with her, she was sitting cross legged on a pale yellow lounge chair next to the door in the guest bedroom. The rest of the guest bedroom was really simple, a bed tucked into the corner near the window (which had faded pink curtains) with a nightstand next to it(with a fluffed pillow for good measure), a closet across from it (which was open a crack, giving them a glimpse of a creepy giant plush bear) and a maroon rug on the floor.

Dream walked into the room and sat on the bed, bouncing on it a little, “W-wow, Kinen, its uh, really nice in here. ”

Kinen smiled, “Yeah, this actually used to be my room when I was a kid, I don't know if that's easy to tell, though.”

“Really?”

“Heh, yeah,” Kinen said, standing up, “I think you can still see some of my old crayon scribbles on the walls.” She walked toward the wall space below the window and kneeled down, “Hmm.. Yep! There it is!” She pointed to a faint red scribble on the wall. It looked like a blobby child's drawing of a little girl (there was an arrow above it which said “me” in big letters) holding hands with what Dream could only assume was her mother(it also had an arrow above it with the word “mommy” in crooked letters).

“Aw that's kinda cute,” Dream chuckled at the little drawing, fiddling with his hands, “Thanks for letting us stay here, Kinen. It's really nice of you.”

“Ah, don't mention it!” Kinen replied cheerily, “Anything for an old friend and his pet bird!”

Jay's head snapped up, “W H A T.”

“Pfffft-” Dream snickered as Jay made an offended noise from the chair she had settled on.

_“S’CUSE YOU_ LADY, I AM NOBODY’S ‘PET!’” Jay noticed him trying not to laugh and glared at him “And I'm _certainly_ not this asshole’s!I am my own bird, thank you very much!” She huffed, crossing her arms (wings?)angrily.

Dream was trying his best not to laugh his ass off, but to everyone else he probably sounded like an old car exhaust pipe sputtering its last breath as it failed to start up for the eighty-seventh time in a row.

Kinen covered her mouth, giggling at this response, “Pfft- sorry, uh...” Kinen looked like she was legitimately blanking on Jay's name. After a moment she said, “Cockatoo?”

“COCKATOO?!!”

“cOcKaToO-” Dream wheezed, nearly falling off the bed from how much he was laughing.

“Sorry!” Kinen squeaked, trying to hold back her laughter, “What's your name again?”

“I’M A FUCKING BLUE JAY! NOT A COCKATOO!” Jay yelled, her feathers fluffing up as she shouted, “HOW DO YOU EVEN-” She took a deep breath and sighed, trying to control herself and un-fluff her feathers, “...Jay. My name is Jay.”

Kinen tried to cool her laughter and apologize, “Okay, sor-”

“Not cockatoo, not bird, not any other bullshit name,” she interrupted in an annoyed tone, “I am Jay.”

“Hehheheheh, you’re gay?” Dream giggled.

There was a small pause as Jay's eyes flashed over to him and her feathers started fluffing up again. As he noticed she looked more circle than bird, Dream felt like the fires of hell were about to rain down upon him.

“NOT GAY, JAY!” She screeched in frustration, “J-A-Y! JAY! YOU KNOW THIS!!”

Dream couldn't control his giggles and threw his head back, uncontrollably giggling, “Hehehehehehehehe, I'm sorry! I just couldn't pass that up, ahahahaha!”

Kinen got up and edged out of the room, smiling a bit awkwardly, “Well, uh, goodnight you two! Try to get some sleep, we've got a lot to do tomorrow!”

“Hahahaha, goodnight, Kinen!” Dream said, collapsing backwards from how hard he was laughing.

“I AM GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU,” Jay announced angrily as Kinen closed the door.

Dreams laughter faded and he sat up, wiping tears from his eyes, “God, I'm so sorry, Jay.”

“I’m not fucking talking to you,” Jay harrumphed, sitting down angrily, her feathers till poofy, “Goodnight asshole.” she muttered with a small smile before she did that bird thing of squishing her neck into itself, which in turn not only kept her warm but made her look very chonky as she fell asleep.

Dream smiled to himself and started taking off his boots, tossing them to the side. Today had been the weirdest day(quite possibly) of his life. Burned down trees, talking birds, anxiety creatures, long-lost childhood friends, festivals, and strange foreboding prophecies were all things he never considered would happen to him all in one day. He pulled off his gloves and put them next to his boots, going next to undo the clasp on his cape. As soon as he undid the clasp a strange feeling overcame him. Like someone was watching him. He glanced over at Jay, she was fast asleep. Dream turned to the window, squinting down to the ground trying to spot something. He saw a flash of white and red, but it was there so briefly that he thought maybe he might have imagined it. He tried to shrug it off and pulled off his cape, dropping it near the rest of his stuff.

_‘Eh, screw it, I'll take off my belt too,’_ Dream thought as he undid the buckle and sighed. He was _pretty sure_ he didn't have organs, but _damn_ did wearing that stupid belt make him feel like he did.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and tried to turn it on. A dim image popped up telling him to charge his phone. Dream sighed, he knew he shouldn't have kept the brightness that high up. He begrudgingly opened the top drawer of the nightstand and set his phone down gently inside it. The black screen stared back at him pathetically and he closed the drawer.

Dream flopped back against the fluffy pillow and sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day. He took off his crown and looked at it in his hand. It glinted happily in the moonlight. Out of all the things he had decided to keep from his old getup, only his crown and cape had ‘survived the purge,’ as Ink had so cheerfully put it. The only reason why they had was because 1) the crown was basically one of his only definition features and 2) he thought the cape looked kinda badass. But it was also a feeling of deep attachment that kept him from getting rid of them, like a childhood toy that you can't bring yourself to throw away or donate, no matter how old you are.

Dream turned and put it next to the lamp on the nightstand, feeling the activity of the day start to weigh down on him as he yawned. He leaned back against the fluffy pillow and pulled the covers over himself, feeling his eyes getting heavy. He yawned again and turned to the wall, closing his eyes and gently drifting off to sleep.


	17. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry I've been gone so long, but I've finally gotten the new chapter done :D!! And for those of you who've been waiting patiently for the second half of the story to come into play, this chapter is for you! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Edit: I've posted some pics of Kinen and Fennec onto my tumblr for you guys, links are down below :)  
> Kinen and Fennec: https://friendly-neighborhood-furry.tumblr.com/post/626647944523825153/for-my-friends-over-on-ao3-left  
> Jay: https://friendly-neighborhood-furry.tumblr.com/post/626798645986181120/this-is-also-for-my-friends-over-on-ao3-just-a

Error was tired in more ways than one. The first way being that he hadn't slept in over forty eight hour, and the second way being that he had had it up to here with his fluffy gray persian cat, Misty. Now, don't get him wrong, he loved her to death, really, but good _god_ did she not know when to quit. Now look, it was _probably_ his faultfor feeding her so early all the time, but that didn't make him feel any better when he woke up every morning to a poofy gray tail nearly suffocating him to death.

Nevertheless he shoved her off of his chest, grumbling curse words not necessarily directed at anyone and fumbled for his glasses on the nightstand next to his blue hammock, slipping them on sleepily. Misty jumped down from the hammock and onto the floor, her tail waving impatiently. Error then proceeded to yawn, stretch, slip out of said hammock and collapse it to a heap on the soft yarn carpet below.

**"Ughhhhh,"** he groaned, sitting up slowly.

"Mrrow?" Misty mewled at him, her big blue eyes questioning why he wasn't getting off his ass and feeding her. "Prrrp!"

**"Yeah yeah, I'm up, I'm up,"** Error grumbled, heaving himself on the floor and stretching his back, the small pops ringing out in the quiet house. Misty yawned and trotted out of the door towards the kitchen. Error sighed and glanced at the clock on his nightstand. It read 11:48.

**_'Oh I slept in... yay me,'_** he thought groggily. **_'Eh, probably a good thing considering how much work I got done last night,'_** Error grabbed his slippers, put them on, and went to the kitchen.

When he got there, he was greeted by a very impatient Misty, who meowed at him, pawing at her dish on the kitchen counter. Error smirked and grabbed a can of wet food from the fridge, dumping its half-empty contents into her dish. Misty gave him a close-eyes kitty smile and started scarfing down her food.

Error yawned, grabbing a coffee mug from the cupboard and making his way to his very own shitty coffee machine. Well it wasn't that shitty, he just called it that because it liked to stop working randomly on some days. He emptied the pot into the sink and put a new coffee filter in, praying that it would cooperate today. He grabbed the small (unopened) black bag of coffee that Cross had given to him with virtually no explanation other than, "They're the best dirty beans around." It had a coffee mug logo with a sun peeking out the top and the words "Top of the Mornin' Coffee" around it, except the "o" in "Top" was the mug. Very strange branding.

He shrugged, chalking it up to Cross' incessant internet obsession (although Cross claims it isn't an obsession and you could fight him on that, and Error knew full well he meant that) and measured out four cups of the ground mixture and dumped them unceremoniously into the coffee maker. After he set it to brew Error sighed, his life had changed a lot lately.

It had been going weird as of late, what with him and Cross working together on their project. Well it had actually started out as Cross' project, but after three visits from the oreo asking him to help stitch a few torn code scraps back together, Error decided to ask what it was all for. Then after a bit of prying, Cross had explained how he kept finding these code pieces that felt so familiar that he had started to collect them and attempt to put them back together. But he was trash at that, so he politely asked (well, more like he pathetically begged) Error to help him with it. So they had started trying to collect as many of them as they could find together and sort them into categories to put the AU back together.

Now usually, Error would have destroyed all of it the first chance he got, no problem, it was his job after all. However, a little something made him change his mind. A little something who was maybe a little some _one,_ who may not be a crush that he may or may not have on a certain skeleton who may or may not have a cute little black ink splat on his cheek who may or may not be one of his closest friends.

So he made a promise to himself (and secretly to that person in his head) that he wouldn't destroy any AUs while he was helping Cross with this project. Due to this, he also had to come over to Cross' house fairly regularly to drop off or pick up scraps to sort. Now this wouldn't be awkward on its own, but what made it awkward was the occasional run-ins that he would have with Cross' husband, Dream.

Usually they were just brief run-ins as they passed each other in the halls or when Dream would come home from his (sort of annoying) job as an AU protector and he would walk into the closet room expecting Cross, but finding him instead. It was strange however, Dream was never openly hostile to him, nor was he very friendly to Error. This was probably due to the fact that they would usually be enemies on the battlefield in normal situations, but Error honestly couldn't remember the last time he had fought Dream, or any of Ink's friends for that matter. But he could understand why Dream didn't trust him, he wouldn't have either. He was a destroyer. A crazy person who acted cruel and selfish. A dirty glitch who wipes out entire universes because he thinks- no, _he knew-_ they were mistakes. Anomalies. Things that shouldn't be alive.

Things like him.

A loud beep from the machine behind him jolted Error out of his thoughts, quickly alerting him to the smell of fresh coffee in the air. He sighed, pushing away his previous thoughts and pouring himself some nice hot coffee. He had to admit, it did smell amazing. He poured a bit of sugar into the hot mug and grabbed a spoon, mixing it around. He smiled and looked over to Misty.

Wait.

Where the fuck was Misty?

Error looked around, **"Misty? Where'd you go, kitty?"** There was no response. Error thought for a moment and decided to try out something Ink had taught him, **"Miiiiiissstyyyyy? Pspspspsp?"**

There was the sound of scrabbling claws on hardwood and suddenly a stormy gray blur rocketed into the kitchen at what could have been eighty billion miles and hour. Misty nearly crashed into the cupboard and stared at him with wide blue eyes, her pupils extremely dilated.

Error nearly dropped his coffee laughing at her, **"AHAHAHA- what the fuck, that actually worked?!!"** He clutched his side, laughing uncontrollably.

"Meowrth," Misty meowed at him in indignation. "Mroow!"

Error took off his glasses,wiping his tears and looking up at her, **"Heh heh heh, sorry Misty."**

"Prrp," Misty sat on her haunches, her tail flicking in annoyance, "Mre-ow?"

**"Okay, you can have a treat for that, that was fucking hilarious,"** he snickered, opening one of the cupboards and grabbing one of the many boxes of clear plastic cat treats, rattling the treats inside a little bit. Misty's ears perked up and she quickly hopped onto the counter, her eyes wide and hungry for treats. Error popped off the lid and poured a few treats into his hand, holding them out to Misty, who began scarfing them down.

After she was done eating them, Error realized he had been absentmindedly sipping his coffee and there was almost none of it left. He shrugged, drank the last few drops and set the mug down in the sink. Walking to the fridge, he opened it and looked for something quick he could eat. He settled on a little cup of greek yogurt and closed the fridge, looking around for a spoon. After he found one and ate the cold yogurt, he leaned onto the counter, thinking through his plan again. 

**_'Now all I have to do is get dressed, check my phone, and then I can...'_** the thought trailed off in his mind. **_'Should I really go through with this?'_**

Error cast a worried look at one of the photos hung on his fridge, one he more or less remembered taking at a party. It was of Ink clinging to the trunk of a tree in the high branches, his cheeks a bright rainbow blush, laughing as he leaned precariously over the edge of the branch he was standing on. Below him, on the ground, Blue was yelling up at him worriedly. Error chuckled, most of his memories of the party were foggy, but he remembered the conversation that happened after he took the photo.

_\- - -_

"Seriously, Ink! Get down from there, you're gonna hurt yourself!" Blue yelled up to his friend.

Ink laughed drunkenly down at him, shutting his eyes, "Sorry Bluburryy, I can't hhhhear youuuu, mah eyez er closed!"

Blue groaned nervously, "Come on, Ink- I'm serious! I _really_ think you should get down from there!"

Ink opened his eyes and shrugged, "Okeeyy den, Imma jump!!"

"NO, DON'T!" Blue yelped.

**"Do a flip!"** Error called softly.

"Error!" Blue snapped at him.

**"What?"** he asked innocently.

"Don't _encourage him!"_ Blue said, making wild gestures with his hands.

"Hey guyz, diz iz my home now."

"Ugh, we're getting you down from there!"

After a bit more of this back and fourth, Error had volunteered to climb the tree to get the stupid squid down from there before he fell from twenty feet in the air. Blue had been a bit surprised by this, seeing as Error was not usually one for physical contact. Error waved him off, saying the nicer equivalent to, **"I do what I want, bitch."**

So he had teleported to the branch Ink was on instead of wasting time climbing the stupid tree. When he got there, it occurred to him that Ink was still very much drunk.

"Heyyyyy Glitchyyyy!! Hehehe- I'm rrrealllly high right now!" Ink giggled, his eyes a pink spiral and a green asterisk and his cheeks still a bright rainbow blush.

" **You're high** ** _up._** **Not high, stupid,"** Error grumbled, edging closer to Ink on the branch and extending his hand out to him, **"C'mon we're getting you down from here."**

Ink pouted and sighed, "Do I haaaave toooo?"

Error sighed, trying to build courage for what was about to happen, **"Yes, now take my hand."**

Ink considered it for a moment and sighed again, "Okay okay, fiiiiine!"

It was then that Error realized he should've thought this through a bit more.

Because now he was holding Ink's hand.

Ink's tiny, ridiculously warm hand.

Ink blinked, looking back at him, his eye-lights having changed to a pink star and purple circle, staring at him with a questioning gaze. He always liked that they did that. It was so... cute. There was a tense silence as Error felt himself getting lost in those eyes, too swept up in Ink's gaze to see that they were now awkwardly holding hands. He was holding Ink's hand. His cheeks felt so hot, what was this feeling?

"Iz somethin wrrong, Glitchy?" Ink asked, raising an eyebrow.

The words snapped Error out of his daze and he jolted, accidentally pulling Ink towards him. The other skeleton squeaked, scrambling for a hold, which, considering he was the closest thing around, ended up being Error. Ink wrapped his legs around Error's waist, panting heavily as he clung to the other skeleton for what could have easily been dear life. Error had his arm wrapped around Ink's back, something he had absentmindedly done to help balance him out.

It was then that Error very desperately wished he had stayed on the ground.

Because, as it turns out, Ink's body was just as warm as his hand.

Error nervously looked to Ink to apologize, only to be met with the realization that their faces were only inches from touching. Ink's cheeks had flushed, but somehow Error could tell it was in a different way. A way that wasn't because he was drunk. A way that conveyed an emotion he couldn't quite place. A way that made Error want to stay like that for the rest of his life... Was he blushing too?

Ink blinked at him, his eye-lights changing into a purple heart and pink question mark, "Uh oh, arre youuu crashinng?"

**"Creo que te amo..."** Error said under his breath.

Ink cocked his head to the side, "Whut?"

**"Isaidweshouldgetdownfromhere!"** Error yelped, quickly teleporting back down to Blue.

"Gah!" Blue yelped in surprise, seeing as he had been impatiently checking his phone since they had been taking so long, but due to their sudden appearance, he had dropped it. But something about the way he was looking at them said he wished he hadn't.

Error shot him a look, **"Don't you dare."**

Blue wasn't even trying to hide his smile. He inhaled slowly and Error briefly wondered how quickly he could commit murder when Blue spoke, "Awww-"

**"I WILL MURDER YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY!"** Error yelled, shoving Ink off of him and immediately regretting it because now he was cold.

Blue giggled, his little grin growing wider, "Error and Ink-y, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G-"

**"SHUT THE FUCK UP-"**

_\- - -_

It was everything after that that he couldn't remember. However, he did remember waking up in his house the next day with a bloody nose, as well as missing his left shoe. The memories felt almost surreal, like they couldn't have actually happened. There was no way he had been _that_ close to kissing his crush and fucked it up _that_ badly. But the photo proved it and besides, he had been sort of unaware of his feelings for Ink at the time, but that didn't make him feel any better about it. Error sighed and left the kitchen, heading back to his room to get dressed for the day.

He looked through his closet a bit before deciding to just go with his normal outfit, which his creator lovingly called his "hobo-outfit." It was similar to his old getup, but the sleeves of his jacket were longer with the ends extended by blue cloth his creator had stitched together (without his knowledge) using his signature blue string. This was also true of his shorts and blue scarf. He had to admit, he liked it a lot more than his old look, deciding it wouldn't be so bad that this would be how a lot of other creators would see him. It also made him feel a bit more badass when he visited other AUs. When Error was done with that, he grabbed his phone off the night table, turning it on. 

  
12:04 am

Monday, August 20, 2036

Notifications

1 new message from **Oreo Bastard**

1 new message from **Squid**

Error opened the message from Cross first.

Today, 11:52 am

**< (Hey stuffs come up, I'm gonna**

**be gone today, maybe tomorrow too.**

**Just figured I'd let you know)**

Error raised an eyebrow and typed out a response.

(Is everything okay?)>

Read 12:04 am

**< (No, Dream's... missing. I might**

**not be back for a while)**

That sounded sort of suspicious, but Error brushed it off. He knew how much Dream meant to his idiot friend, they were _married_ for fucks sake. It was only fair for him to be there for him.

(He's missing?)>

Read 12:04 am

**< (Well he disappeared yesterday**

**morning and left a note saying he**

**would be at Ink's house for a**

**"quick errand" but then a few hours**

**go by and he doesn't respond to any**

**of my texts or calls. So I'm going**

**after him)**

(Oh that's weird but how do you plan to do

that? The multiverse is fucking h u g e .)>

Read 12:04 am

**< (Ok this is gonna be creepy but I put**

**a tracking device in his phone and I**

**think I'll be able to find him with it)**

(Huh. That does sound kind of creepy but

you do you I guess. Hope you find him.)>

Read 12:04 am

**< (I hope so too)**

Deciding to leave the conversation at that, Error checked the text Ink had sent him. It wasn't text, actually, it was an audio recording that was maybe a minute long. Error smirked and made sure his volume was turned up. He played the recording.

A very tired sounding Ink played out from the speakers on his phone, "Okay, sup bitch. I'm like... hella tired r'now, but I needed to tell you something before I legit pass out, uhhh... Fuck, what was it again?" There was a pause, "Uhh... right! I got your text yesterday- the one about you wanting to show me something? Just figured I'd respond like this because I think if I try to type it out my hand might just fall off, haha. Stupid fuckin' calligraphy..." He whispered the last bit before he continued, "Uhh... yeah, so uh just, like, come get me when you're ready, ok buh-bye."

The recording cut off and Error smirked, **_'You want me to come get you, huh? Alright, you rainbow motherfucker, I'm coming over there.'_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, told ya I would have some Errorink in this fic :D
> 
> Oh yeah, and feel free to translate that one line if you want to, just figured I would put some of my newly obtained knowledge from Duolingo to use ;)
> 
> Anyways, if you feel like spoiling a few things for yourself (mostly just learning more abt characters that'll appear later on and some memes of said characters), consider checking out my instagram (wow, nice shameless plug) The link is in my bio, I'm a bit more active over there and I might open up a QnA at some point idk
> 
> Thats all for now, til' next time- safe and stay odd! Peace out!
> 
> ~Doggo


	18. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Cute Dog. 
> 
> You read that right.

After he freshened up a bit, Error teleported himself outside Ink's house. It was a nice place, if it weren't for the many black patterns painted onto the roof Error would be able to say it looked like any other house. Granted, it had a lot more space than one person, a cat and one overly hyper australian shepherd needed, but that was mostly because Ink had obtained it from a Creator when Dream was still living with him.

Error had always found that weird. He knew Ink could talk to the Creators (it was one of the reasons he thought Ink was crazy when he first met him), but he never understood how they just _willed entire universes and buildings into existence._ Like, could they make an AU of him? Or of anyone for that matter? Could they bring people from other entirely different Multiverses into their AUs? Could they blend any of them with characters from another Multiverse for an AU? Could they bring their own original creations into their AUs? Could they make AUs where some of his friends were dead? _Could they make AUs where some of his friends fu-_

Error shook his head, jumping off that weird train of thought and trying to focus on what he was doing. He teleported to the front door and took a deep breath before knocking. There was no response so Error knocked again, this time harder. Again, he was only met with silence. Error sighed and just teleported inside.

As per usual the house was a complete disaster, papers, and mutilated pet toys everywhere. The couch cousins were in disarray, and the sides of the couch were clawed up, a few band aids slapped in the areas where the wooden skeleton was peeking through. The coffee table had an abandoned watercolor palette and canvas sitting on it, along with two mugs, one labelled "paint water" with a few brushes sitting in its mucky gray water and the other containing what Error could only assume to be coffee that was labelled "not paint water" (there was definitely a story behind that). The TV mounted to the wall was off, and its screen was dusted in pet hair. A small cat tower sat in a spot near the window, nearly towering over him.

Speaking of cats and cat towers, Ink's cream-and-chocolate colored maine-coon was perched on one of the higher levels of the tower.Upon noticing his presence, Tofu jumped down from her perch and padded over to greet him.

**"Heh, hey Tofu,"** Error said, kneeling down to pet her. **"How've ya been?"**

"Mrrow," Tofu purred, rubbing her head against his hand.

**"Yeah?"** Error chuckled, **"How's Cookie?"**

Tofu shook her head and licked his hand affectionately.

**"Where is he then?"** Error stage-whispered, looking around the room for the hyperactive aussie dog.

Then, as if on cue, the sound of thundering pawsteps coming down the stairs rang out in the house, accompanied by dog panting and excited barking. Error suppressed a laugh as a very excited Cookie shot out from around the corner, nubby tail (and butt) practically vibrating from excitement. He ran up to Error, panting and smiling his dopey puppy smile.

Error snickered and patted Cookie's head, ruffling his blonde-and-brown chipped fur, **"Hey, buddy."**

"Bark! Bark bark!" Cookie yapped excitedly. Tofu flattened her ears against her head and hissed at Cookie, her tail poofing up. Error tried to comfort her by petting her with his other hand, but she backed away and hopped back onto the at tower, climbing to the highest level and loafing herself up there.

**"Eh, that's fair,"** Error smirked to himself, turning back to Cookie and rubbing the sides of his face. **"Have you seen Ink, buddy?"**

Cookie cocked his head to the side and sneezed.

Error sighed, **"Damn. Guess I'll have to go find him, huh?"**

Cookie licked Error's wrist and scratched his ear with his hind leg.

Error sighed and stood up, **"Alright then, where to first?"** Cookie trotted over to the couch and hooped up there, pacing for a moment before lying down.

**_'The kitchen? No, he would have said something if he was in there,'_** Error thought,

 ** _'Maybe upstairs? He said he was tired, he probably slept in. God, that means I have to wake him up,'_** Error took a deep breath and teleported into the upstairs hallway. There was a bark of protest from downstairs, but Error ignored it, **_'Its okay, I'm a brave boi. I can do this.'_** He looked around nervously for a second before making his way to Ink's room. As soon as he was at the door, he stopped.

 ** _'Waking him up in his own house... That really is something a boyfriend would do isn't it?'_** Error shook his head, **_'I should just get on with this.'_**

He gently knocked on the door, **"Ink? Wake up, dumbass..."** There was no response. Error took a deep breath and cracked the door open, **"Ink?"**

It took a few seconds of staring at a cat-shaped beanbag that was leaning against the wall for Error to remember Ink had recently rearranged his room and that his bed was now at the back corner of the room and not near the door. Error took a deep breath and nudged the door the rest of the way open, looking around nervously. After failing to see any reason for him to die of embarrassment, Error stepped inside, looking around a bit.

Ink's room was messy, everyone who knew him knew that. It lined up pretty well with his personality, most would say. It was only ever neat and tidy when he had a random burst of _needing absolutely everything to be organized right now_ (which didn't happen often) _._ The worktable next to the window had a sketchbook on top of it, fancy lettering taking up most of the page. An inkwell and fountain pen sat next to it, papers that had been torn from the sketchbook had similar cursive letters littering the surrounding area. Three plastic cartons filled with papers and sketchbooks were stacked against the closet door, all of them nearly overflowing with stuff. The large multi-colored rug in the middle of the floor was as much of an eyesore as always, as were the multiple posters plastered all over the walls. The curtains were half-closed, gentle sunlight from god-knows-where filtering through it.

And of course there was Ink, all snuggled up in his blankets, peacefully asleep in his bed. Error blushed a little, he had forgotten how cute Ink was when he was asleep. After all, the last time he had seen him like this... well, let's just say it had been after one of his not-very-sober moments.

Ink must have been either a heavy sleeper or half dead because he didn't stir in the slightest when Error tripped over a dismantled canvas stand trying to get closer to him. Thankfully, he didn't end up falling flat on his face and just did a weird balancing-dance until he was stable. After his short tango with death (shut up, Reaper), Error found himself not really wanting to wake Ink up. He knew it would be much easier to do if he still hated Ink, but alas he had a fucking soul and Ink was cute as hell.

He just looked so calm and content, like a little kitten that had fallen asleep in a patch of sunshine. Not to mention the way he held his hands close to himself, it was like he was asking to be cuddled.

**_'What?'_** Error hit the side of his head with his hand, **_'Stop being so gay, you idiot.'_** Error sighed and begrudgingly kneeled down, **_'Sorry, Ink, I need you awake so I can show you this.'_**

Error gently shook Ink's shoulder, **"Hey, Ink, wake up."** He said softly.

Ink stirred in his sleep, bunching his eyebrows together, "M-mmmnnhh..."

Error felt his face flush a bright yellow, the weird feeling in his chest was back. The same weird feeling that he had originally felt when he started having feelings for Ink. It was a soft, warm pulling sensation in his chest that came whenever he thought about him, or when Ink would gush about a creator he had met that day, and it was especially strong every time he saw Ink smile or laugh. Granted, at that time he thought Ink had cursed him or something, but he had come to enjoy it.

Of course, he hadn't told anyone about it then (and he certainly wasn't going to now), that would be like taping a sign to his shirt that said _'I'm weak and stupid, feel free to kick my ass!'_

And it wasn't like he didn't have anyone to talk to about it, he just knew the people he _knew_ wouldn't be of any real help.

He figured Cross would probably make fun of him, Geno would be too wrapped up in how depressed he was to listen, Fresh wouldn't take it seriously, Dust would laugh at him, Horror would be too busy being a cannibal or whatever to listen, Killer would probably tease him to death, and Blue...

Blue still wasn't talking to him.

For good reason too.

Error patted Ink's shoulder, pushing that train of thought aside, **"Come on, you rainbow asshole, wake up."**

Ink scrunched his eyes shut, "Nnnngh... Go away... I'm dead..."

Error smiled slightly, the blushing in his face dying down, **"If you're dead, I'm stealing your cat and destroying that one AU with the anime superheroes."**

Ink blinked open his eyes, sleepily glaring at him, "You better not, bitch... BNHATale is my favorite."

**"I thought you said Cattale was your favorite?"** Error teased, **"Along with Outertale, Poketale, Altertale, Demitale, Oceantale, Asylumtale, Delta-"**

"Shushie your mouth-hole," Ink said, sticking out his tongue. "I stand by what I said! Besides, I cant choose a favorite because they're all my favorite."

Error scoffed, **"God, that was corny."**

Ink sat up and yawned, smiling at Error, "I'd rather be corny like me than edgy like you."

**"Hey!"** Error shot Ink a playful glare, adding, **"I'm not _that_ edgy."**

"Yeah yeah," Ink stretched his arms over his head, some parts of the intricate spiral patterns on his ribs showing through the sleeves of his tank top. Error tried to control his blushing as Ink yawned again, "What time is it?"

Error pulled out his phone and checked the time, trying to hide his face in his scarf without making it too obvious, **"'Bout twelve-thirty, you slept a long time."**

Ink groaned, "Fuuuuccckkk, dude, are you kidding me? I went to bed at like midnight and slept through the whole morning??" He said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Error shoved his phone back into his pocket, chuckling a bit, **"Heh, from the looks of it, yeah."**

Ink sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes, "Whatever, why are you in my house?"

Error blushed a bit in embarrassment, **"I, uh, got your message- er,** ** _video,_** **from last night. You said to just come get you, so..."** He trailed off, scratching his neck nervously through his scarf.

"Oooh... right," Ink nodded knowingly. A little grin started to spread across his face, and he threw the covers off of himself, "Cool, I'll get dressed and meet you downstairs in a bit, ok?"

**"Y-yeah, yeah totally,"** Error hastily stood up and got out of Ink's way as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

Ink tended to sleep in a minimalistic style, usually wearing a tank top that didn't quite fit him and shorts to bed. It was respectable, especially during the summertime. But Error always had felt weird about it. Something about how he could see Ink's hips through the bottom of the shirt, or the way some of the black spiral patterns on his neck and chest peeked out from the shirt collar, it gave him a strange feeling he couldn't quite place.

Error quietly cursed at himself for stuttering, **"I'll grab you something to eat while I'm down there."**

"Oh, it's okay, you don't have t-" Before Ink could finish his response, Error had teleported back downstairs.

Ink sighed, smiling slightly. This felt like a good start to his day.

_'Now I just have to remember where I put my clothes.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I know I've taken a while to update ("a while," its been like two weeks) but thats because 1) I'm lazy and I forget everything, and 2) school has started up again for me, so updates are gonna take a bit longer to come out than they would normally.   
> But on a more happy note, the next time I update, you'll all get to meet a new friend who's joining our little cast of characters! (Heres a hint; I've alluded to him before in a past chapter, I'm not saying which one though)   
> (Also in case anyone was wondering; yes I did change my username and yes its because my sona's a cat and not a dog like I previously thought her to be so yeah hsdgiufsjdfkjdffj)
> 
> Thats all for now, and until next time- stay safe and stay odd! Peace out!
> 
> ~Splatt


	19. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: Mentions of Self Harm and Animal in Danger
> 
> This is another secondary plot chapter, and like i said last time, in this one you guys are going to meet a new friend! Yay!!  
> Hope you guys enjoy anyways~

Error teleport-stumbled into the kitchen, scaring the bejesus out of Tofu and making her fall into the empty sink. He righted himself and Tofu meowed at him angrily from where she was sitting.

**“Whoops. Sorry, Tofu,”** Error chuckled, walking over to the counter Tofu was perched on and patting her head gently.  **“I keep forgetting Ink can’t do that.”**

“Mmrap!” Tofu said, lashing her tail.

**“Heh yeah,”** Error sighed and started looking through the cabinets.

**“Cookies, crackers, gummi bears, coffee, redbull, protein bars... Damn, Ink, you really do just live off of sugar and caffeine don't you?”** Error mumbled to himself, looking for some sort of breakfast item. He moved to another cabinet and looked around.

**“Cereal? No, that would take too long,”** Error spotted a blue cardboard box in the back corner of the cupboard.  **“Oh what about-”** he reached into the back corner and grabbed the box,  **“PopTarts! Score!”** There were four packets of s’mores PopTarts left in the box

**_‘Should I toast them or microwave them? Crap, does he even have a toaster?’_ ** Error seriously doubted it, but knowing Ink, it could be a very real possibility. Error put the box down on the counter and looked around for a toaster in some of the bottom cabinets. After a bit of searching, he came up with two options; a Hello Kitty toaster and a toaster that seemed to print a hyper-realistic picture of Bob Ross’ face on bread.

He opted for the Hello Kitty toaster. 

After setting them to cook, Error leaned against the counter, thinking. Tofu purred and hopped out of the sink, sitting on the counter next to him. He began stroking her head absentmindedly.

**“You think I’ll ever be able to tell him how I feel, Tofu?”** he asked with a sigh.

“Mraow,” Tofu responded, leaning into his touch.

Error smiled sadly,  **“Heh, who am I kidding? He probably just thinks of me as a friend.”** Tofu gave him a doubtful look that sadly went unnoticed as Error began daydreaming about if Ink  _ did _ like him back.

An abrupt  _ ch-toonsk! _ startled him out of his thoughts and he looked over to the toaster, the PopTarts were done. Error went to get them out of the toaster and put them on a plate. Thankfully Hello Kitty's face wasn't burned into them like he had feared it might have been, but they were still pretty hot.

**_‘Probably a good idea to get some cold milk to go along with these,’_ ** Error thought, going to look through the fridge.

**_‘Eggs, bread, britta filter, orange juice,’_ ** Error thought to himself, scanning the fridge contents from top to bottom.  **_‘Tortillas, shredded cheese, random stranger standing in the corner, coffee creamer-’_ **

**_‘Wait what.’_ **

Error slowly turned back to the corner he'd seen the person standing in, to find that, yep, there was a person standing in the cramped corner of the fridge.

He was about six feet tall (although he may have been taller as he was squished down a bit), and skeleton just like him, with bones that were a dark gray color. This came as a bit of a surprise, considering Error had thought he was the only skeleton with that feature. His eyelights appeared to be a bright cyan, although the left one was covered in a dark ooze that Error noticed seemed to be coating his entire body. He was wearing a black zip-up jacket, the tops of the shoulders having holes in them where dark cyan demon-like wings stuck out a bit awkwardly, along with some off-black shorts and sneakers to match. Six slimy looking black tentacles stuck out from behind his back, coiled inwards like that of an octopus.

What was strange was that now that Error had noticed him standing there, he also noticed they were taking up most of the visible space in the fridge. Almost as if he hadn't been there only moments before and simply  _ appeared _ out of thin air. 

He glared down at Error,  **“Get out of my way.”** Error took a scrambly step back and the stranger exited the fridge and sighed,  **“Good, it was getting cramped in there.”** The stranger stretched his arms over his head, flexing his large wings and unfurling his tentacles, some of the dark goop dripping onto the floor. After a moment he sighed again,  **“Now, where were we?”**

Error blinked in confusion, having gone from surprised, to confused, to a feeling that could only be described as ‘what the actual fuck.’

Error made a wild gesture with his hands,  **“Where were we?! You just walked out of a fucking fridge!!”** He tried to keep his voice down and refrain from yelling, **“How did you even get in there?! Where did you come from?! WHO EVEN ARE YOU?!”**

He kinda failed at the ‘not yelling’ part, it seemed.

**“Where I came from is none of your fucking buisness,”** the stranger snarled, revealing his sharp teeth, his tentacles arching over his back like a scorpion’s tail poised to strike. Suddenly the tips looked much less like harmless little nubs and much more like they could spear straight through solid ice.  **“As for who I am, that's information that isn't important right now and I don't need to explain myself to you anyways,”** the stranger took a deep breath, his tentacles going back to being idle at his sides and one of his wings nudging the refrigerator door shut.

**“Umm, okay...”** Error tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down. This was fine, he’d experienced weirder,  **“Why- uh, why are you here?”**

The stranger smirked, backing up a bit,  **“Easy, I want to offer you a deal.”**

**“A deal?”** Error repeated, confused.

**“Yes,”** the stranger nodded, turning to stare at Tofu. Her back was arched and every hair on her body was standing up, her tail lashing back and forth and her blue eyes were wide in terror. The stranger chuckled a bit in amusement and walked over to her, **“You see, I've been watching you for some time, Error-”**

**“H-”** Error tilted his head a bit to the side,  **“How do you know my name?”**

The stranger turned and shot him a glare, **_“Don't_** **interrupt me.”** He growled, petting Tofu softly. Tofu froze and Error decided to shut up as the stranger continued, **“** ** _As I was saying,_** **I've been watching you for some time now, Error. And in that time I've spent doing that, I've witnessed your remarkably powerful abilities.”**

Error looked away guiltily, he knew what the stranger was talking about. His powers. The ones he used to destroy AUs and the ones he used to hurt some of the people who he now considered his closest friends.

**“It's incredible, really,”** the stranger remarked, turning his back to Error and hiding a mortified Tofu behind him.  **“With a simple jerk of your wrist, you can immobilize almost any enemy with those strings of yours and bring some of the strongest monsters to their knees with your bullet attacks. You don't hesitate to strike, not to mention you're agile and cunning. You don't give up the chase until the job is done, and your prey never escapes your grasp.”**

Error winced a bit, hearing someone else describe him like a ruthless hunter left a bitter taste in his mouth. Not to mention that the stranger was wrong about that last part.

His ‘prey’  _ had _ escaped him before, twice actually; a pair of anomalies. He had planned to kill them both together, but they managed to knock him down in battle. One left with almost fatal injuries and the other with only minor damage. They had a few things in common when they fled, their fear of him was heightened, their trust of him was broken, and their newly found hatred of him was immeasurable.

All of these reasons he understood. All of these reasons he now felt himself.

The stranger's monologue snapped Error back to reality,  **“Now since I've been watching you for some time, I have noticed you've... stopped. No hunting, no killing, no destruction of any kind,”** the stranger's tone quieted slightly as he stroked Tofu’s fur.  **“Why is that?”**

Error blinked in surprise,  **_‘Does this guy really think I'll just tell him?’_ **

**“I...”** Error trailed off and tried to straighten up,  **“Why should I tell you?”**

There was a flash of movement, so quick it could have been missed in the blink of an eye. Error was confused for a moment until he felt a small burning sensation in his chest, which quickly grew to a sharp pain. He doubled over in pain, clutching his chest, what had happened? 

_ Plip-plip… _

**_‘Wait, is that...?’_ ** Error’s hand crept up to his mouth and felt the corner for a moment. When Error pulled his hand away, he bit back a gasp. Shimmering yellow blood stared back at him, dripping off of his finger and onto the floor with a soft  _ plip.  _ Error took a quick glance at his HP.

**HP: 9000/10,000**

**“I'm not going to ask you a second time, Error.”**

Error's eyes widened in shock, his gaze flashing upwards to the stranger, who frowned down at him. One tentacle was hovering at the strangers side, pulled back slightly like a cobra after striking. 

**_‘Holy shit... he took off a thousand of my HP like it was nothing...’_ **

**“Well?”** the stranger stared at him expectantly.

**“Ugh...”** Error glared back at him and tried to stand, his kneels threatening to buckle underneath him,  **“Who the hell do you think you are?”** he grunted.

The stranger narrowed his eyes at him,  **“I thought you were better than this.”** One of his tentacles slinking out from behind his back, something small and round clutched in its grasp. 

Something small, round, and furry.

Something that looked a bit too much like a cat.

Tofu squeaked from the tendril’s constrictive grasp, clawing limply at the appendage that held her. The stranger lifted her higher into the air,  **“Now, we could do this one of two ways. The easy way, or the hard way. If we do it the easy way, you tell me what I want to know and I'll leave her alone and finish my proposition.”** The stranger smirked slightly and continued,  **“Or you could refuse and get to see this poor little kitty get squeezed like a lemon.”** He winked, **“It's your choice.”**

There was a lingering pause for a moment before Error made up his mind.

**_‘Fuck you.’_ **

Error acted quickly, reaching up to his eye sockets and summoning his strings. He felt them quickly wrap around his wrist and secure themselves to his bones. 

He wasted no time, lashing the strings towards the enemy. They made a small crack sound in the air and wrapped around the arm tightly. The stranger's eyes widened, but within seconds Error had ripped his arm backwards, severing the limb and pulling the cat towards him. The tentacle hit the linoleum floor, limp. 

Error kneeled down as Tofu clawed herself out from under the tendril and hopped into his arms, shivering and panting. He put one arm over her protectively, using the other hand to hold a new set of strings in front of him.

The stranger looked down at the tentacle on the floor then to where the limb had been severed. After a moment it began to melt, and before long it had disappeared into a black puddle on the floor. The stranger's shocked expression had faded, being replaced by an angry sneer,  **“Bastard...”** His remaining tentacles began arching over his back, threatening to strike as his eye glowed brighter. Error took a step back in preparation, his strings buzzing with energy. The stranger huffed, seemingly considering something as his tentacles reluctantly went back to idling at his sides,  **“I could kill both you and the cat in an instant, Error.”** He said, sighing in annoyance as he stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets.  **“But since I need you alive, I'll let this one slide, 'kay?”**

Error held his stance. The stranger chuckled a bit,  **“Wow. You're actually afraid of me... That's cute.”**

Error fought to keep a stoic expression, he wasn't scared of this guy. He was just a bit rattled, that was all. This guy wasn't scary, not in the slightest. He’d only randomly appeared in Ink’s fridge, admitted to stalking him for who knows how long, took a fraction off his HP like it was no big deal, threatened to kill Tofu and could easily sense his fear without effort. 

Not scary at all.

**“Let me ask you a question, Error,”** The stranger took a step towards him, and Error backed up a bit, feeling his back hit the refrigerator door. Error held Tofu closer to his chest as the stranger got closer, propping a hand against the door and leaning down to his eye level, getting a bit too close for comfort,  **“Do you miss it?”**

Error lowered his arm slightly in confusion,  **“...What?”**

**“Let me answer for you, you do. You miss everything about it,”** the stranger said in a rough whisper. Tofu squirmed a bit in his arms as the stranger continued,  **“The thrill of the hunt... the rush of the kill. You could do whatever you wanted and there was nobody powerful enough to stop you.”**

**“You loved every minute-** **_every second-_ ** **you spent hunting them. Torturing them. Ripping them into pieces no matter how much they begged you to stop,”** Error couldn't bring himself to speak, to move, or to breathe.

**“You had the most fun with the humans. Though it was hilarious that they thought they could fix you,”** Error’s eyes went unfocused, remembering all the times he'd laughed at them. At their hopeful smiles and outstretched hands. 

At their pained expressions and bloodied corpses.

**“And you would have to stop sometimes because of those stupid protectors who just dont get you. And you hated it.”** Error snapped back to reality, dropping Tofu abruptly. She landed on her feet and stopped to hiss at the stranger before scampering off. Error glanced back to the stranger.

**“But... one day you stopped... It's been a few months since you last purged those anomalies from this Multiverse. I'm not going to force you to tell me why you've done this, but I am going to offer you a deal,”** the stranger hissed with a smile. Since Error was closer to him now, he could see the stranger's cyan tongue was forked like a serpents. 

Error swallowed nervously, trying (and probably failing) to not show fear,  **“... A... a deal?”**

**“Exactly. Make it so you're able to have the freedom of destruction without silly little protectors ever finding out.”** The stranger chuckled softly, a low, rumbly sound that sent chills down his spine.  **“You can keep your happy little friendship and still be able to take out your frustration on them.”**

Error fell silent, was this guy telling the truth? He'd stopped destruction for a few reasons, but the stranger was right. He did miss it. He missed being able to take out his frustration on them. To let loose and go wild. To have little to no consequences to his actions. To release the anger and hatred that would boil up inside of him until he lashed out and hurt the people he loved. 

It had gotten so bad that he'd actually started letting some of it out on himself.

Error fidgeted with his long sleeves nervously, avoiding eye contact as he peeked at the bandages,  **“And what would you be getting out of this deal?”**

**“Well that's simple,”** the stranger said, lightly touching Error’s chin with his hand, causing Error to tense up,  **“I'd be getting you.”**

Error squinted in disgust, putting his arms up defensively, **“What?! Ew!”**

A light cyan blush appeared on the stranger's face, **“Wh- Ugh- not like that you perv!”** He growled through clenched teeth, **“I** ** _meant_** **I would get** ** _you on my team._** **Stupid fuckin' Lucid- knew his advice was just to set me up again..."** He muttered the last part casting a glance at his wings before turning back to Error.

**** **“Team?”** Error asked, raising an eyebrow. He tried to slow down his soulbeat, seeing as now he knew this guy wasn't going to do anything like that to him. 

**“Well- I wanted to call it that, but my brother says that it's more of a gang. Which I suppose is a better name than ‘Elite Team of Murderous Individuals.’ He was always better at the cool group-names thing…”** The stranger trailed off for a moment, lost in thought. After a few seconds he nodded back in and continued, **“Anyways, I'll reiterate for you; you join my gang and help me kill AUs so I can grow stronger off the negative feelings, and in exchange I'll make it so your little protector buddies don’t hear a thing.”**

**“You get stronger because of negative feelings?”** Error asked, somewhat intrigued.

**“Did I stutter?”** the stranger asked bluntly. Error decided to keep his mouth shut as the stranger continued, **“Now since I'm a nice guy and I want to make you feel welcomed in my little group, I'll give you a week to decide. Turn me down and stay here being miserable, or take my offer and keep the happy life as well as your favorite hobby.”** The stranger smirked cynically, backing up and giving Error some room to breathe.

**“Here,”** The stranger snapped his fingers and Error's phone buzzed in his pocket, startling him. He looked back to the stranger who waved at him with a creepy smile,  **“When you make up your mind, just give me a call alright? Au revoir~”** He winked at Error before teleporting away, the puddles of black goop (including the puddle that had previously been a tentacle) on the floor disappearing along with him.

Error stood in silence for a few seconds, trying to gather his thoughts. Did that actually just happen? He checked his HP.

**HP: 9,000/10,000**

He nodded nervously to himself,  **_‘Yep, okay, cool, that's fucking weird.’_ ** Error sighed and tilted his head back against the fridge door. He knew his life was crazy, but this? This was too crazy for him. He scratched his bandages nervously, peeking at them from under his sleeves. They were a little dark, he’d have to change them later. Error sighed, this was happening. And just like everything else in his life, he couldn't stop it. 

Pushing that thought aside, Error pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it. An unknown number (presumably the stranger) had shared a contact. Error apprehensively unlocked his phone and checked the contact. It had a number attached to it with no other additional information other than one thing. A name. Error squinted to read it, quietly cursing his nearsightedness. He read it out loud, his voice just below a whisper.

**“Night Terror...”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
> SUCK IT WRITERS BLOCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
> 
> Cant believe I got this one done in less than a week!!!! iM sO sPeCiAl AnD aWeSoMe-
> 
> In other words, the next chapter may be a bit longer for reasons I'm not going to say. But afterwards we're going to get back to the main storyline (sorry Errorink fans, its for the best). And let me tell you, I cant WAIT to start writing that one!! (I'm gon get to introduce my angy boi >w<)
> 
> And also, let me know if there are any questions you guys have abt our new friend, I'd be happy to give cryptic-ish answers in the comments! 
> 
> Thats all for now! Until next time- stay safe and stay odd! 
> 
> Peace out!
> 
> ~Splatt
> 
> (also yes im starting to fall into the Minecraft YT fandom, so you guys can thank my gf when i start memeing about it in the end notes Owu~)


	20. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Author Appearance
> 
> Hey guys, sorry this one took a long time, I WAS planning on posting this with three plot-segment-check thingies, but my best friend gently but firmly reminded me that I'm not a fanfiction factory, sooooo yeah have this shorter chapter. I'm planning to do a sort of special chapter/authors note once we hit a thousand hits on this badboi, so maybe share this around, help me out a bit, hm? (We've actually already hit it over on Wattpad!)
> 
> Without further adew, I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter!~  
> ~Splatt

Ink tugged at his sleeves and patted down his pants, making sure everything was in its proper place. He smiled to himself. His creator, Comyet, had given him some new clothes a while back and he had to admit, he _loved_ them. This outfit was _so_ much lighter than his old one, and way less clunky too. Ink glanced around for his scarf, grabbing it off of his headboard and neatly tucking it into place around his neck. He always liked scarves, they hid his tattoos pretty well, made it a whole lot easier for him to forget about them.

Ink wandered around the room looking for his vials, perking up upon noticing the sash in a crumpled pile on the floor next to the beanbag. He cheerfully picked it up and slung it over his shoulder, the vials clinking together quietly. He turned to grab Broomie, but stopped short. His hand drifted back his chest to gently touch his vials. After a moment, he took the sash off, looking at it in his hands with a soft expression. Walking back over to his bed he sat down with a sigh. It had been so long since he had last used them for their intended purpose. Since he last drank the paints that had helped him to feel emotions for so long. It had also been a while since he used them in battle against...

Ink still remembered what happened to him the day he failed. He thought it would be easy since he'd already made Tofu and Cookie by himself. How difficult could a few environments, buildings, and people be?

Very difficult. Very, very difficult. So difficult, in fact, that he realized he'd have to scrap it. Funny how that was, he had always told _them_ not to give up, even when it was hard for them to continue making their creations. And then he'd done exactly the opposite, like a hypocrite. He was foolish to think he could do it on his own, the Creators were the only ones strong enough and powerful enough to create worlds on their own. Ink was only strong enough to defend them afterwards.

And not only was he ignorant in thinking he could do it all by himself, he was dumb enough to think that using paint thinner to get rid of it all would bear no consequences. He hadn't thought of what would happen if he got it on himself, he assumed it would be fine since regular paint didn't affect him when it touched him.

But it _wasn't_ regular paint. It was paint _thinner._ It was designed to take mass _away_ from things. He should have taken that as a warning before he spilled a bucket of it all over himself by accident.

At the time he had laughed at his foolishness and gone to wipe some of it off himself, but then he heard that sound. It was a quiet, fizzling sound that quickly grew louder as Ink felt a horrible burning sensation beginning to appear all over his body. He shrieked in agony as the liquid began burning away at his clothes and exposed bones. He frantically whacked the majority of the paint thinner off, stopping to wipe away the areas where it still burned and fizzled away at him. All the while Ink felt his HP dropping lower and lower and lower until-

_K-krack-crack!_

He looked down at his hands (or what was left of them), eyes widening in horror as what was left of his body began to dust in front of his eyes. He desperately whirled around looking for something- _anything-_ that could heal him. If he dusted now- he wouldn't be able to come back. Not without a soul. As his legs gave way he spotted the sash slung over a step ladder nearby; he proceeded to drag what was left of himself in that direction. Which is a hard thing to do with (almost) two arms and no legs.

But he couldn't get there in time. So he died.

Ink shivered, he still remembered it so clearly. Feeling the life fading from his body, his vision going dark and his memory blacking out. Then some time later his eyes fluttered open. He remembered being confused, he thought for sure he had died.

"Oh shit, you're awake!" Someone had yelped, startling him. He had sat up and glanced around the room, and at the voice coming from outside, "Thank god, I was wondering if you were _ever_ gonna wake up..."

Ink had glanced around, realizing he was in some sort of makeshift tent, the kind someone would use for a small group of people as shelter from the hot summer sun (except this one had curtains covering any possible exit). He had been seated on a small bed in the corner of the room, a few ruffled blankets covering his body. Ink had sighed in relief, because at least he wasn't dead. One of the curtains had shifted aside, accompanied by footsteps, but Ink still couldn't see anybody.

"Hello?" he said

"Hey, there you are!" the voice said cheerfully. "Wow, I did a great job, you look awesome! Man, you don't know how scary that was for me. If you'd died, I dunno what I would've done!"

"Comyet?" Ink asked hopefully. Surely his creator was the one who saved him from death, right?

"What?" The voice chuckled a bit, "No, sorry, I'm not... I'm not Comyet."

Ink's shoulders slumped in disappointment, "Oh... who are you then?"

"Me? Oh um right I forgot about that um-" the voice seems to move around a bit in the room before stopping again to what he assumed was right in front of him. "I'm not really allowed to do this but-" Ink heard a soft click sound as a monster-like form began to materialize out of pixels across from him.

It appeared that the person who had saved his life was an anthropomorphic cat monster with green eyes and white fur full of blue splotches that looked like paint splashes. She was wearing a faded blue zip-up hoodie and tie dye shorts, a strange choice of clothes for someone her size, but then again Ink wasn't one to judge.

She smiled anxiously, "Um, my name is Splatt, I uh, I'm technically breaking like, a _big_ rule right now by revealing myself to you, but that's besides the point. You were dead and I guess I sort of, maybe, probably, _brought you back to life._ "The last part of that sentence was rushed, she appeared to be trying to keep a friendly demeanor despite it being _very_ obvious that she was internally freaking out.

Ink shifted a bit in his seat, "Um, okay, how exactly did you...?"

Splatt chuckled nervously, "O-oh I, well I was looking around and I-I sort of _noticed_ what happened to you here so I set this up-" With how much she stuttered, Ink could have confused her for an Alphys if he hadn't been able to see her. "A-and I, y'know- did my Creator thing- but um w-while I was doing that, I sort of um _remembered_ that you didn't really have a soul, so I um, I-I thought I would give you a new one! Surprise!!" She threw her hands in the air in a half hearted gesture of excitement.

Ink blinked slowly, a small smile growing on his face, "Wait, really? You gave me a... a soul? A real one?"

"Well uh, yeah! I even made it like, personalized? If that makes sense?" Ink shrugged at her and she continued, "Just- um, here take a look." Splatt waved her hand quickly and in less than a second, Ink's new soul appeared in front of him.

Ink stifled a laugh, when she had said she made it personalized, this was not what he had in mind. The funny thing wasn't the soul itself, it was mostly normal. An upside down heart that floated peacefully in front of him, his HP and LV off to the side. No, the funny thing about it was that it had a rainbow gradient that went from the top of it to the bottom.

"What?!" she asked, seeming offended that he would want to laugh at her totally-not-ridiculous-attempt at personalizing something for him.

Ink snickered, "It's nothing, just... rainbows? Really?"

"It was all I could come up with, okay?!" She yelped, a bit of pink blush peeking through her fur. "At least I tried!"

Ink chuckled a bit, "Nah it's okay, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't consider it myself. I actually." Ink touched the soul lightly with his finger, feeling a sort of soft, tickling sensation come from it. He smiled softly, "I actually kinda like it."

A small smile appeared on the cat's face, "R... really?"

Ink nodded, "Yeah! A doofy rainbow soul is better than no soul at all, right?"

"Of course! Totally!" Splatt nodded her head vigorously, obviously elated that he liked her gift.

"So I can feel emotions with this? Like, real ones?" Ink asked hopefully, though he already knew the answer, the happiness he felt was a clear enough confirmation on its own.

"Well, yeah!" She said, her smile growing, "I-In theory, you should also be able to summon magic attacks, too!"

"Wait, seriously?" Ink hopped off the bed excitedly.

Splatt took a stumbly step back, "Y-Yeah! I mean- more _in theory,_ but I-I would suggest doing it somewhere else, maybe later, y'know? I-If you can wait, that is," Splatt shoved a paw in her front jacket pocket nervously, using the other one to scratch behind her ear.

"Yeah, I can wait," Ink said as he pumped his fist in the air, "God, this is awesome- thank you so much!"

"I-its no problem really! It was super easy for me, barely an inconvenience! Heh heh..." She seemed to laugh at her own joke before her smile faded slightly and she fiddled with her paws.

Ink raised an eyebrow, eyeing her with concern, "Is something wrong?"

"N-no, it's just..." She sighed, "I should _really_ get going now. I mean, I-I'm breaking a lot of rules right now by just _being here visibly."_ She gave a weak smile,"So I should probably leave before I get caught, y'know?"

"Oh, right," Ink chuckled a bit.

"B-but before I go- I just-," To Ink's surprise, Splatt pulled him into a tight hug. He awkwardly accepted, noticing immediately that her fur was soft and fluffy, but her body felt cold, almost hollow. Like she wasn't really there. Ink snapped back to reality as she began speaking, "I-I just wanted to say thank you... you've been such an inspiration to me a-and helping you is the best gift I think I've ever gotten. W-When I see you and how far you've come as an artist a-and- and a person- it just, fills me with hope. It makes me really believe in myself a-and my abilities. Makes me- it makes me feel like it's gonna be okay." She sniffled a bit before uttering a soft laugh, "Heh heh... God, I wish you were real..." She said in a wistful tone that was just quiet enough that Ink couldn't hear it.

They stayed there just a bit longer before Splatt let go, backing up and wiping her eyes with her paw, "I should go now, um, here." She flicked her paw at the ground, a few droplets launching off of her fur and turning jet black. When they hit the floor, the droplets expanded into a small puddle, "You can use that to get out of here after I'm gone, since I know you don't like empty spaces." She smiled at him warmly.

Ink nodded, "Okay then, is this goodbye?"

Splatt nodded sadly, "I'm afraid so, i-it was great talking to you, Ink."

"Will I ever see you again?" he asked.

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke with a soft smile, "I-I can't say for sure, but I hope so... Goodbye, Ink."

"See ya, stranger!" he said, casually saluting her with two fingers. She chuckled a bit before raising her right paw and tapping the side of her wrist. Then, just as she had appeared, she began to dissolve into pixels until there was nothing left. Ink smiled at the spot where she had stood moments before, that was the first time he'd ever met a creator in person. And like everything in the Multiverse, it was AWESOME.

Ink very quickly noticed the tent around him beginning to fizzle out of existence. He took a deep breath before jumping into the puddle she'd made for him. As he melted away, Ink couldn't help but chastise himself for not asking if she was creating an AU of her own. It was what creators did, how could he have forgotten? Perhaps it was the whole getting-a-new-soul-thing that made him forget.

_'...'_

_'A new soul, huh?'_

_'Thanks, Splatt.'_ _  
_

**_~ ~ ~_ **


	21. Chapter Twelve

When Dream awoke that morning, he was surprised to notice one of two things. The first being that he smelled scrambled eggs and the second being that Jay was nowhere to be seen. That was the surprising part, obviously. The only evidence she had even _been_ there were a few feathers on the plush chair in the corner of the room. Worried and a bit hungry, Dream tiptoed down the stairs, far too aware of the fact that he was still unfairly exhausted.

He hit the bottom of the stairs with a _thump_ , sighing heavily before calling out in a tired voice, “Kinen?”

Kinen’s voice sounded from another room, “Oh- you're awake! Good morning, sleepyhead!” Dream wandered into the kitchen. Kinen had her back to him, facing the stove.

After a moment she perked up and turned to him with a smile, “I made you some breakfast! And- since I remembered when we were kids I tried to give you some cookies my mom made that made you kinda sick-” She grabbed a hardbound leather book off the counter, “I scrounged around in the Archives and found a monster food recipe book!” She beamed, very proud of herself.

Dream gave a soft smile, “Oh wow, that's cool- thank you!”

Kinen got a plate out of the cupboards and scraped some eggs onto it, “It may not be very good but I tried my best. Hehe...” She turned to present it to him. The eggs looked pretty good, though Cross’ scrambled eggs were still his favorite. Kinen’s did smell amazing though.

Dream smiled, pleasantly surprised “Oh- thanks, Kinen. They look really good!” He took the plate and Kinen got him a fork.

She smiled, “Thanks.”

Dream turned to the table and sat down to eat, “Have you seen Jay, by any chance?”

“Oh yeah, she left earlier this morning,” Kinen nodded to herself dismissively, wiping down the stove. “’Said she was going back to the tree to think for a bit.”

“Orh, orkay,” Dream murmured through the eggs, they tasted almost as good as they looked.

Cross’ were still better though. Clearly.

There was a small silence as Kinen continued to clean up, chuckling softly after a moment.

“So, I may have messed up a little bit last night. I got a little too caught up in the excitement of everything during my speech and I sorta, kinda, told everyone I was gonna sendyoutwoonyourwayfirstthingtomorrow,” she turned to him and shrugged with a guilty smile. “Whoops.”

“That's okay, heh,” Dream subconsciously nagged himself for tuning out at that part, though, granted he had a lot of more stressful things he was worrying about at the time. “You mean the soulless being, right?”

Kinen nodded, “Yeah, he should be over in about twenty minutes or so.” She checked the stove clock; it read 9:37. Kinen wiped her hands on the dish towel and nabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter, taking a bite out of it. Dream shuddered a bit, intrusive thoughts nagging him about what that would feel like.

He shook his head a little and tried to get back on the right train of thought. Twenty minutes. That was plenty of time, right?

_‘Plenty, totally.’_

Remembering his phone battery was dead, Dream swallowed the food (the mystery of where it went was probably an unsolvable one, and at the very least one _he_ wasn’t going to solve). Now would be a good time to ask for one so he could charge up before the trip. “Hey, um, do you happen to have a phone charger, by any chance?”

Kinen looked up at him and gave him a weird look, “What's a phone charger?”

Dream blushed in embarrassment, waving his hand dismissively, “Uh- nevermind! Forget I said anything! Heh!”

Kinen looked at him, seeming slightly concerned, “Um, okay... I'll be in the living room if you need anything.”

“Alright! Heh heh...” Dream smiled awkwardly until she was out of sight, to which then he covered his face in shame and proceeded to exhale in panicked exasperation.

_‘UUUGGGGHHHHHHHH- How do they have refrigerators and light bulbs and electricity and stoves and curse words, but not phones?! What time period are these people even living in?!?’_

“Hhhhggggggg...” He groaned.

“You okay?” Kinen called from the living room.

“I’M FINE!” Dream yelped.

“Alright...”

Kinen slowly leaned into the stiff couch cushions and sighed. Dream seemed so much different from how she remembered him. He acted so much more anxious and shy, so far from the bold and kind kid she remembered from her childhood. Though, she shouldn't be one to judge. She'd gone from a petty, bratty child with no remorse for her actions, to a kind, just person who tried to think things through so she can do her best to fulfill her role as leader of the village.

Well, the best she could do within reason, of course. She was a very reasonable person, who made very reasonable decisions, like cutting out parts of her village that weren’t meant to be there. And hey, it wasn't _her_ fault the kids parents didn't want him; who would want to keep a soulless kid around anyways? It's unnatural. He should have been dead, the only thing that stopped the fates was the will of the prophecy. It's a miracle he's survived that long living in the _Dark Forest_ of all places. Alone! With all the demons and creatures living there! Manticores, gorgons, cockatrices, chimeras, fire-breathing wyverns and poison-spitting dragons, need she really go on?

Golden apples, he looked half dead when she talked to him earlier that day. Kinen shuddered. The guy was always a bit off putting, with those cold, gray eyes and blank expression. No wonder his family didn't want to keep him around, with an appearance like that, it wasn’t a surprise the demons thought him to be one of them. Plus with Path B of the prophecy, Kinen felt she made the right choice with the very light banishment she gave him. It was a good choice too because now, the village had a spy on the inside. A _semi_ -trustworthy source with knowledge of how the demons work and when their planned attacks are.

 _‘For a creepy kid with no soul, he's got all of those things wrapped around his finger,’_ Kinen thought with a smirk. _‘That time with the deer spider really shows how much my decision paid off.’_

 _‘How long ago was it again? Two or three months at the least, I think. Still get a rush thinking about it,’_ she stifled a chuckle. That day had been so awesome, from luring the demon into her trap with the kid, catching it and finally _killing it._ Oh sweet apples, if she could do it all over again, she would. Then again, it feels almost better that she couldn't. Made the memories that much more special. And it made her gloves feel that much cooler- especially with the Deer-Spider’s dried blood on them.

The Deer-Spider.

_“SLATE, PLEASE- I DON'T WANT TO DIE- HELP ME!!”_

Kinen shuddered a bit, its screams still rang out in her mind sometimes. So chilling, so real so… human.

_“Y-you know I love you, r-right? You're like a son to me, Slate! I’d do anythi- Hey!”_

_“Pipe down will you? Heh, wow, Ethan. It really has no idea what you are.”_

_“W-what? What are you talking about?! Slate, what does she mean?”_

_“He’s human, stupid. He's been fooling you this whole time. That kid doesn't love anybody, especially demons like you.”_

_“Tha- that's not true! R-right, dear? You love me, right? And the others too?”_

_“…”_

_“...Y-you... You lied to me.”_

It almost made her feel bad about getting rid of it. But she pushed those feelings down, it had to happen, besides, the thing deserved it after all it had done. The people it had manipulated and slaughtered. The child it had kidnapped... and killed.

Only a truly vile creature would capture an orphaned child and hold him hostage, only freeing him through a brutal death. Nothing that _evil_ deserved to live. _None_ of them should be allowed to go free. Not even him.

_Knock-knock-knock!_

**_~ ~ ~_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeyyyyyyyyy guuuyyyyyssssss!~
> 
> So I've been gone a while, I know. But OwO, whats this? It seems I've got a reason this time! Number one is because I was getting really behind in school and needed at least a week to get caught up on everything(crazy, I know), number two is because I was really stressed from online school and going through a rough time mentally, so I needed some time away from the internet. But I'm okay now and I'm ready to start writing again!
> 
> Speaking of writing again, I am so, SO excited to work on the next chapter! Its gonna be more cute Errorink stuff, like I promised (but, y'know, with a little somethin-somethin at the end~)!
> 
> And once we have that out of the way - we'll finally be able to dive into the deep end of this story! Side note; some of you might have noticed that whatever killed Helen seems to vary between Anxiety and some random wyvern. I'd like to clarify; its the wyvern. I was trying something different out but I didn't end up liking it so I'm going to be going back and fix that error. (Heh, error) 
> 
> Thats all for now! Until next time- stay safe and stay odd! Peace out!
> 
> ~Splatt


	22. Update A/N

hey, guys.

i'm sorry i've been gone so long, i've had a lot of trouble coming up with motivation to write lately. on top of that i've been fighting some really rough depression as well. as of writing this i've also had to say goodbye to my father's elderly cat, and i have a feeling this will prolong the next update as well. 2020 has been a very hard year for me and my family, and i know it must have been a hard one for all of you as well.

i just wanted to let you all know that whenever the next update comes out, i'm going to take a break from updating to focus on my schoolwork and my own mental health.

there are also some small changes that i have to make to the story, but most of them are small, like name changes and things like that. concerning the QnA I've decided to cancelled it in its entirety. it was a dumb idea based on impulse and i'm sorry i eve did it. this story has been an obsession of mine and i should have thought it through before i made that mistake. 

i hope you all are still interested in this story

i'm signing off for now, stay safe and stay odd, my friends

-splatt


	23. Chapter 13 (i'm back, baby!! ^w^)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey everyone! i'm baaaccckkk! oh and i have stuff!! 
> 
> i'm also feeling a lot better than i was in the last update, heh. sorry if i worried any of you, i just wanted to make sure i made it clear that i'm doing a lot better now :3
> 
> i'll spare you all the details about everything, i just hope that you enjoy this (long) chapter for all its worth! sorry this took so long to write btw, stuff came up during the writing process and i had to take a break for a bit "- > \- 
> 
> also, word of warning, there's self-harm near the end of this chapter, so if you're sensitive to to that sort of thing, i would advise that you just try to skip past it. 
> 
> anyways, i hope you enjoy! ^w^
> 
> -Splatt

Making sure Tofu was okay, Error finished preparing the Pop-Tarts, setting down the glass and plate on the coffee table in the living room. Checking to make himself absolutely sure that there wasn't anyone else down there with him, Error sighed and collapsed into the soft couch. He pulled out his phone to quickly check the time (it was 12:45), and shoving it back into his pocket, Error began thinking about the events that had just transpired.

The stranger (whose name he assumed was Night Terror, which was so edgy it wasn’t even funny) said he'd been watching him, which was creepy in and of itself, but apparently he’d been doing so without Error even _noticing,_ which was something he did not care for at _all._ Not to mention the threats, intimidation tactics, and what could have easily passed as _flirting._ It was surprising that Ink hadn’t come downstairs yet, what with all the ruckus he'd probably been making over it all.

_**‘Is he ok? Should I go check on him? Would that be weird for me to do that? What if he's avoiding me?**_ ** _’_ **Error shook his head and sighed, **_‘No no, I’m overthinking this, I should just go check on him.’_**

As he tip-toed up the stairs, Error noticed how quiet the house was. With Cookie asleep, Tofu hiding under the coffee table and Ink still quietly in his room, the silence was almost deafening. Made sense to him now why Ink had music playing from somewhere a lot of the time, being here in complete silence was so chilling.

Error stood in the hallway just outside Ink’s room. Was he really overthinking this? It's not _that_ absurd for someone to take a bit longer to get ready in the morning, right? Especially someone who gets distracted as much as Ink does. Yeah, he was overthinking this. Error spun around awkwardly and started back down the hall.

“Error?”

Error stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around, giving Ink an awkward smile and wave, **“Heyyy, Squid.”**

Ink was dressed in his usual attire, a shirt, poofy pants, weird gloves that only covered two fingers, and of course his big scarf. But Error felt something was missing, though he couldn’t put his finger on what.

Ink gave him a concerned look, “Error, are you... bleeding?”

****

**_‘Shit.’_** Error glanced down to see that, indeed, he was bleeding, **_‘How the hell did I forget about that?’_**

Error quickly covered the dark patch on his chest, **“Uh- no, no I'm not.”**

Ink hurried over, “Oh god, what happened? Are you okay??”

Error shoved him back lightly, **“Nothing happened! I- I’m fine, okay?”**

Ink batted his hands away, “No, you’re not, Glitch, you’re bleeding! Let me see!”

Error veered to the side, **“No- its fine, Ink! Seriously, shove off!”**

Ink scoffed, “Come _on, Error!”_ Ink grabbed his arm and pulled the Error back to face him as Error continued to struggle, “Why won't you let me help you?!”

Error stumbled into the wall, turning his head back to Ink to bark, **“I don't need any help! I’m fine!”** He tried to shake Ink’s grip loose.

“God, you're insufferable sometimes!” Ink cried, setting his feet down on top of Error’s and pinning one of his arms against the wall.

Error squeaked, his other arm falling to his side as Ink leaned down to pull back the part of the coat that was covering the wound. Error felt Ink's hand lightly nudge the fabric of his shirt to the side and he flinched, feeling his face flush as his soul started beating faster. After a moment Ink spoke, “Seems to me like there's a decent-size hole in your shirt.” He looked up at Error expectantly, “What happened? And don't try to bullshit your way out of this.”

Error hesitated before speaking.

**“I... I slipped and fell on a knife I dropped on the floor, it must’ve torn through my shirt and cut me. I-I didn't want to tell you because it was embarrassing and I felt stupid,”** Error said, hoping him blushing would come across as embarrassment rather than... something else.

Ink sighed, smiling, “Alright, that's fair. C’mon, let's head downstairs so I can get you patched up, okay?”

**“Yeah, uh- okay,”** Error said, nodding quickly.

Ink grinned, “Great! C’mon!” He let go of Error and dashed down the hall and headed towards the stairs.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Error let out a loud sigh of relief. That was stressful, way too stressful. The only reason he got by without being found out was probably due to the fact that Ink was pretty bad at being able to tell if people were lying. And on top of that, Error was still baffled at the fact that he had completely forgotten he was bleeding. Though with everything he’d been doing lately, he guessed it was reasonable to assume he’d just ignored the pain quickly after it occurred.

He was really lucky that Ink didn't see the bandages on his arms.

...

That was way too close.

But close wasn't always a bad thing right? If Ink hadn't been so close just now, Error wouldn't have realized how nice it was to have someone touching him. And he hated being touched, but for some reason he didn't mind that much when Ink did it. Ink was so warm, and cute, and sweet, and nice, and he smelled _so good,_ like butterscotch and vanilla candies. He bet Ink probably tasted like butterscotch and vanilla candies, too.

****

**_‘What?’_** Error shook his head and started making his way back downstairs. ****

“You made me Pop-Tarts?!” he heard Ink yell excitedly.

Error peeked around the corner to see Ink beaming and holding the plate with now semi-cold Pop-Tarts on it. He chuckled a bit, **“Yeah, happy birthday.”**

“It's not my birthday though?” Ink said, confused.

**“I know,”** Error smirked, teleporting to the couch and collapsing onto it with a soft _‘oof.’_

Ink rolled his eyes, setting the plate down on the coffee table and leaving the room, “Whatever- take your shirt off so I can bandage you up, you doofus.” He called over his shoulder in a joking tone.

**“Yeah, okay.”**

**_‘Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK! If Ink sees my arms he's gonna freak! What do I do?!’_** Error worriedly scratched his bandages as he thought. **_‘Fuck, uhhh- oh, I got it! I'll just cover my arms with my jacket and blame it on being cold! That's believable, right? It'll be fine. Totally.’_** Error nodded to himself, hoping that this idea would work as he took his coat off.

Ink was right, there was a hole in his shirt at least three fingers wide in his shirt, which was pretty thoroughly soaked in his blood. Error gently brushed his fingers over his injured rib, hissing quietly when he felt a large cut in the bone. **_‘Motherfucker...’_** Error instinctively reached up to take off his glasses so he could rub his eyes, only to realize they were gone. Great, just great. He wondered where he’d left them this time. Sighing, Error pulled off his jacket and set it to the side. He pulled his shirt off and set it down on top of the crumpled jacket, trying to make sure that blood would seep through onto the couch.

“Aight, I got the med-kit!” Ink’s voice sounded out from the next room over and Error scrambled to cover his arms with a pillow. He tried to appear relaxed as Ink walked in holding an open tin box, “So we got band-aids, gauze bandages, disinfecting pads, aspirin, disinfecting spray, and neon- neo- wah?” Ink set the box down on the coffee table and grabbed a little tube, his face scrunching up as he tried to read the label, “Neko? Necno? Neono-spen? Neospernin? What the _fuck_ is this word??” Ink chuckled a bit and glanced to Error for help.

Error snickered, **“I'll let you work this one out by yourself.”**

Ink scoffed in mock offense, looking back down to the little tube, “How dare you.” After a moment his face lit up, “NEOSPORIN!! Neosporin?? Did I do it?” He looked to Error hopefully.

**“Yeah, you got it,”** Error chuckled.

Ink pumped his fist in the air, beaming, “Yesss!” He blinked for a moment, “Wait what were we doing?” Ink snapped his fingers, “Right, dressing your wound! I forgot for a second, heh.” Exchanging the tube of neosporin for a small paper box only about the length of his finger, Ink sat down next to Error on the couch and opened the box. He pulled out a little pad and unwrapped it, the smell of alcohol stung Error’s nose as Ink turned to him, “C’mere.”

Error edged closer, this was already awkward (at least for him), even though it _really_ shouldn't have been. He just had to take his shirt off so that Ink could dress his injury, nothing about that was _gay, right?_

**“Nnghh!”** Error hissed through his teeth as Ink dabbed at the area.

Ink stopped, “Oh- sorry! It's the rubbing alcohol isn't it? I forgot how much it stings-”

**“I’m fine- it's cool,”** Error said in a strained voice, clenching his eyes shut.

“Sorry...” Ink said before starting again, much softer this time. After he was done, Ink set the little pad down on the coffee table and grabbed the box of band-aids, only to put it back in favor of the gauze bandages. He turned back to Error and made a face, “Hm. Can you lift your arm up for me real quick?”

No getting out of this one, he’d have to be clever.

**“Yeah, but, um don't look, okay?”**

Really clever.

Ink cocked his head to the side, “Uh, why?”

**“Just don't, okay? This is already kind of awkward, you know...”** At least he wasn't lying about that part.

Ink nodded, “Right, okay, I promise I wont look.”

Error sighed softly, **“Thanks...”**

As Ink wrapped the bandage around Error's chest, his mind began to wander. How many times after they fought did Error have to do this by himself? He knew how much he’d had to fix himself, especially in the beginning when Error would tear off his... Ink shuddered, he couldn't even name a number for how many times Error had broken his bones, or blasted him into what felt like nearly nothing, or threw him around like a ragdoll, or tried to crush him to death with his strings. All of course were unsuccessful in trying to kill him since he didn't have a soul back then (no soul equals no being able to die, haha!).

Now, some would say that it was a (very) bad idea to be friends with someone who’d done all that to him, but Ink didn't think so. Error was a different person now than he was then, he'd changed. Ink felt he was pretty much solely responsible for that change, though he'd never say it to Error’s face. After all, it had taken so long just to get Error comfortable with his presence, and on top of that, small amounts of friendly physical contact took _ages_ to achieve. But it had been worth it. Error hadn’t destroyed a single AU in three months, and he's never seemed happier.

_‘I haven't fought him for so long...’_ Ink thought absentmindedly.

_‘I never want to fight him again.’_

**“Ink?”** Error's voice snapped Ink back into reality.

“Huh- what?”

**“W- what are you doing?”**

Ink blinked and looked down at Error's collarbone.

Wait, his _WHAT._

It appeared that while wrapping the bandages around his friend, Ink had spaced out completely. His face was mere centimeters from Error’s neck and shoulders, one arm gently holding Error’s arm and the other clutching the bandage roll tightly behind Error’s back. He must have wrapped it around him six times before he spaced out. Oh god, how long had he been spacing out? How long had they been sitting like this? Why did it feel so nice to be sitting like this? Why was it so warm? Why was _he_ so warm? Why was his soul pounding? Why was his face so hot? _Why was that weird feeling back?_ Ink’s mind was racing as the silence between them grew.

Error’s mind, on the other hand, had screeched to a complete halt. He couldn't form a cognitive thought, and even the sentences he’d managed to force out of himself (if you could even call them that) had taken _way_ longer than they should have to say. All he could think about was the feeling of Ink’s warm breath against his neck, and how it tickled, but in a weirdly nice way. But no matter how nice it felt that didn't change the fact that he felt extremely awkward.

****

**_‘What. Is happening. Why. Won't he answer me. I have. To say something.’_ **

**“E-Earth to Squid, do you read me?”** he said, hoping Ink would respond this time.

Ink jolted and pulled away, dropping the bandage roll by accident, “Gah! S-sorry! I zoned out! Sorry!” His face was flushed in a bright rainbow hue, his eye-lights in the shape of an exclamation point and a star.

Error raised an eyebrow, **_‘For three minutes??’_**

Answered with only an embarrassed silence from Ink, Error sighed, **“Alright...”** An awkward silence started to creep back into the conversation and Error sighed internally, bringing himself to speak, **“Are we uh, just about done here?”**

“Y-yeah, um,” Ink pointed to the roll of bandages that had landed on one of the pillows behind Error, “I'm uh, really hungry, you think you do the rest by yourself?”

**“Yeah, Ink I'm not five,”** Error felt relieved, the both of them seemed to be collectively forgetting about it.

Ink smiled, chuckling, “Cool, c-cool.” He turned back to the coffee table and picked up the plate of Pop-Tarts, “Aw man, they’re cold now! Hold on, I'll be back.” He got up and left the room.

If Error was being completely honest, the rest of the time he'd spent at Ink’s house he had spent dissociating. He'd been talking to Ink of course, but it was more of an autonomous response sort of thing than a thought-out interaction sort of thing. He kind of felt bad, but then again, Ink hadn't really seemed to notice. When both of them were done doing what they were doing, Error had teleported the both of them to Cross’ house so that he could _finally_ show off what he'd originally come to get Ink for. And he was _more_ than excited to show him, especially since it took so many hours to put together.

“Woah! Error check it out!” Ink’s voice broke through his thoughts.

Error snapped back into reality, **“Huh- what?”**

“Can't believe it's still here! Remember when I threw up on this tree?” Ink grinned, pointing at the birch tree in the front yard that had a black stain on its bark.

Error gave him a confused look, **“Uhm, no. I wasn't...** ** _there.”_**

****

“Oh,” Ink blinked slowly. “Ohhhh, riggghttttttt.”

**“Pfffffft-”** Error tried to muffle his snickers, but quickly they broke into laughter. **“Hahaha! How do you- haha!”** Error hugged his stomach, trying not to topple over.

Ink crossed his arms over his chest and scoffed, blushing lightly, “Shut up! It's not my fault I forget things!”

Error rolled his eyes, smiling, **“Yeah yeah, c’mon you dork.”** Ink stuck out his tongue, but still followed him to the front of the house. Once they were on the porch Error knelt down and lifted the corner of the doormat, feeling around underneath for the spare key. **“Got it,”** He said under his breath, pulling out the key and standing up.

He heard Ink gasp in excitement from somewhere behind him, “Oh my gosh, they have a porch swing!!” Error turned to see a starry-eyed Ink looking absolutely delighted at the mediocre swing that sat in the corner of the porch. He punched the air in excitement, “Aw hell yeah- Imma sit on it!”

Error smirked, he'd never fully understand what went on in that skeleton’s brain, **“Alright then, heh...”**

Error fiddled with the lock for a moment before he heard a small _click!_ As the lock became undone. He opened the door but very quickly realized he felt something that could only be described as “a disturbance in the force.”

**“Oh wait a minute...”** Error’s eyes widened as the sound of clicking nails against hardwood floors grew increasingly louder, **“Nononono-”** But before he could scramble out of the way, Error was thrown backwards onto the porch by a very, very excited dog.

**“AGH! DAMNIT, SLINKY! GET OFF ME!”** Error shouted angrily as Slinky slobbered all over him. He tried to push the big dog off of him, but Slinky only further annoyed him by settling his big fluffy body further down on his chest. That was it, the dog wouldn't move. He sighed loudly and looked to Ink, who snickered.

“I think he likes you,” he said, trying to cover his smile behind his hand.

**“Fuck you, rainbow asshole...”** Error grumbled, trying one last time to shove Slinky off of himself. And again, the dog didn't budge. He sighed, **“Ugh- can I get some help, please?”**

Ink smirked, putting his hands on his knees and leaning down, “Slinky! C’mere buddy!” Slinky’s head snapped up and he sprang off of Error, warranting a loud cough from the skeleton, seeing as he had been used as a launchpad. Slowly Error sat up, groaning and rubbing the back of his head, trying to blink off the headrush he felt. Ink held Slinky’s head in his head, cooing, “Aww, look at the good boy! Who's a good boy?”

**“‘Good boy’ my ass...”** Error grumbled quietly as he went to wipe some of the slobber from his cheek on his sleeve, only to discover that the slobber extended far beyond his cheeks. **“Oh for the love of- are you kidding me?! My FACE is covered in DOG SPIT!!”**

“Pfft-” Ink bit back a laugh, stopping to raise an eyebrow, “Aw c'mon! I think it's a good look on ya, Glitchy~” He said with a wink.

Error found himself both caught off guard and flustered by that comment, **“F-fuck off, bastard! Shut up!”** Error stuttered, averting his eyes. Shit, he was probably blushing like crazy. God damn Ink’s cute face and his stupid, pretty eye-lights and his adorable little idiot smile and his cute-dumb winking and his stupid _everything._

Ink blinked in surprise and he walked over, leaning down to offer his hand and a smile, “Sorry, dude. I was just joking around...”

He had no idea how flustered that would make Error. Flustered, that's the correct term right? Hard for him to be sure, Ink had trouble with words sometimes. To his surprise, Ink felt that mystery feeling again, seeing Error all flustered on the ground. He tried to grasp it, to pull it close and examine it so he could figure it out, but it kept slipping out of his grasp when he least expected it. Damn. Aside from that he had to admit, it was kind of cute how Error got all blushy and defensive.

_‘Wait- what?? Cute??? What the heck, Ink?! Cats are cute! Dogs are cute! Fluffy bunnies, and gerbils, and chinchillas are cute- not people!! Especially not Error, he's your best friend! Friends aren't animals, they're people! God, what is going on with m-’_

Ink was shocked back to reality when Error grabbed his hand and helped himself up, his blushing calmed down significantly, **“Whatever...”**

“You want help with the um...?” Ink gestured to the general area of Error’s face.

Error wiped away the drool with the end of his scarf and quickly walking through the door, muttered, **_“I’mfinelet'sgoinside.”_**

Ink followed shortly behind him, Slinky at his heels, “Okay then.”

To their surprise, the house was in utter disarray, with couch cushions strewn about the floor of the living room (on top of that the couch had been pushed away from the wall and now stood at an acute angle), several things were knocked over in the main room alone, the coatrack was on its side, and the drawers of a small stand had been left open. This in and of itself would have been concerning, but the fact that Dream was such a neat freak who would never let the house be left like this made it even more so. He used to get upset with Ink when he put the Pop-Tarts away without closing the seal properly, for god's sake.

Then what happened to have left the house like this?

Ink shuddered, “What happened here...?”

Error glanced at an overturned chair, **“Not sure...”** A silence befell the two of them as they stood in the main room, nervous and put-off. After a long awkward pause, Error cleared his throat, taking his eyes off of the chair, **“Uh, Cross texted me earlier though.”**

Ink perked up, “Yeah?”

Error nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets, looking down at the floor, **“Yeah, ’parrently Dream left a note saying he was going to your place to do something, but then, y’know, a few hours go by and Dream isn't answering any of his texts or calls, so Cross went after him.”**

Ink's face shifted to one of distress, his eye-lights turned to an orange crosshair and yellow x marking, “That's- my house? So that's why he called me... Well- jeez, I hope Cross finds him okay...”

**“Yeah...”** Error nodded slowly. **“I hope so too,”** he added.

Error knew Dream didn't care for him much, he was pretty bad at hiding it. Error guess he probably wasn't too happy with an ex-destroyer hanging out in his house and making a mess out of the spare bedroom with his husband. Granted he and the skeleton had clashed a few times back when he was... different. After all, destroying AUs in their entirety did get boring to him after a while, so he had to get creative in order to have more “fun”, and inherently that sort of thing would draw Dream’s attention in particular. They made amends (eventually, at least enough for the animosity between them to die down a bit), but that was only after him seriously fucking someone up (two someones, really) on a personal level.

Error shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the bad memories. He tried to put on a chill face and gestured to their surroundings, **“As for what happened here, I honestly don't know. I doubt Slinky could have caused all this mayhem.”**

Ink let out a soft chuckle, his eyes reverting back to their usual form of a blue circle and yellow star, “You should see my place after I'm gone for a few days, Cookie absolutely _loses his mind_ when I'm not around.”

**“And poor Tofu has to deal with his shit until you come back?”** Error added, smirking. **“Sounds familiar...”**

Ink punched him in the shoulder playfully, “Shut the fuck your mouth, I’m not _that_ annoying.”

Error snickered, **“If you say so, Squid. C’mon, let's go.”** Error turned back to close the front door and then headed to the spare room, Ink following close behind.

The sight that beheld Ink was one he had only ever dreamed about seeing. A half-lit room with dusty air wall bulletin boards, red string connecting several pieces of paper on the walls, musty metal file cabinets, and papers stacked in messy piles on the floor. Across the walls were several bulletin boards covered in different pieces of paper connected by red strings attached with push-pins. In the middle of the room was a table with two desk lamps (one of which had a flickering light) that had a magnifying glass, clear tape and papers in varying sizes scattered across its surface. Needless to say, it looked like the den of a conspiracy theorist, and Ink couldn't believe he was seeing it with his own two eyes.

He snickered and tapped Error on the shoulder, “What is going _on_ in _here?”_ Ink asked sarcastically.

Error turned around to face him, raising an eyebrow, **“What do you mean?”**

“Do you think the Illuminati is behind all of this?” He asked, making weird gestures with his hands and trying not to laugh.

Error cocked his head to the side in confusion, **“What? What are you talking about?”**

Ink found it harder to keep himself from laughing, “Is this all just some big scheme by the government to sell us all to the aliens?!” He made a dumb face at Error and after a moment a huge grin broke out on his face and he started laughing.

**“Ohhh, so** ** _that's_** **what this is about!”** Error laughed. Ink nodded, giggling. Error rolled his eyes, **“No I'm not writing conspiracy theories, especially not ones about the government.”**

“Because they’re always watching?” Ink snickered.

Error snorted, **“No, dumbass, because this is the** ** _Multiverse._** **We don’t** ** _have_** **a government.”**

Ink chuckled to himself, “Yeah, that’s the joke.”

Error rolled his eyes, smiling, **“Whatever, I'll be ready in a sec.”** Error walked over to the table and started shifting through the papers in a box on the floor, **“Oh, and uh, fair word of warning- some of this stuff can seriously mess you up if you’re not careful, so try not to touch anything.”**

Ink nodded, deciding to take a look around. He walked up to one of the bulletin boards, his eyes being drawn to a flat drawing of what looked like an eye with drawn on eyeliner and a heart-shaped iris. It didn't seem like anything special, but something about the way it was shaded and textured drew ink in. It was strange, he felt weirdly drawn to it, like something inside of him just had to get a closer look. Without thinking, Ink's hand slowly crept up to the paper and he touched it lightly with two fingers. And with that one touch, something clicked into place.

The paper felt like metal.

Ink's eyes widened, how was that possible? It was a flat image, but he could feel ridges in the material, almost like he was touching a sculpture. What was going on with this thing? Ink was so preoccupied with the picture that he didn't notice what was happening to his hand.

A small sound grabbed Error’s attention and he stopped shifting through the box, closing his eyes to focus on a sound that was only barely audible. It must have been coming from somewhere behind him.

_Chht-rkt!Ch-ktsk! Chhicht!_

Error's eyes snapped open and he whirled around toward the sound, **“INK!!”**

“Huh? Wh- hey!” Ink jolted as Error grabbed his wrist, pulling him away from the paper. “Error, what-”

**“I told you not to touch anything!”** Error yelled in exasperation. Bringing Ink’s hand closer to his face to look at his fingertips, he saw that Ink’s two forefingers had started glitching like he does. He sighed in frustration, **“Some of this stuff is seriously dangerous, Ink!”**

“Sorry!” Ink yelped, a guilty look on his face. “I don't know what I was thinking...”

Error muttered to himself as he adjusted his grip on Ink's hand, softly pressing his thumb to the middle of Ink’s palm and moving his other fingers down the back of Ink’s hand so he could get a better look. He felt a wave of relief to see that the glitching seemed to have calmed down and begun fading. Error sighed, turning his gaze back to Ink, **“It's okay, just- Please don't do something like that again, not unless you want to end up like me, heh.”**

Ink offered a slight chuckle at the joke, curious as to how Error didn't seem to notice how his fingers curled inwards at his touch, softly wrapping around his thumb almost reflexively. However, very quickly another awkward silence fell over the two of them, leaving them holding each other's hands while making fleeting eye contact. Neither seemed keen on letting go, whether they realized it or not.

_‘He's so warm... I like warm...’_

****

**_‘What are you doing, Error?! Let go of him, damnit!’_ **

Error was the first to break away from the embrace, hoping to god he wasn't blushing horribly, **“A-Anyways-”**

“Y-yeah!” Ink stuttered, blushing slightly and fanning his face with his hand.

**“I think I found the thing I uh, need, soooo,”** Error scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Ink smiled awkwardly, fidgeting with his scarf, “Oh uh- ok cool, cool.” He folded his arms, trying to calm himself down. What was going on with him today? First the spacing out and now this? Was he sick or something??

Error cleared his throat (though it was a mystery as to how), turning back to the box, **“Ahm, yeah...”** He started looking through the box again, finding the folder was a bit easier now that he knew where it was. He pulled it out of the box and held it in front of himself. The name was messily sketched out in sharpie marker, it read, “Semi-completed & Connected Scraps, be careful when opening (do NOT give to Slinky)”. Error smiled slightly and turned back to Ink, **“Okay you uh- you might wanna close your eyes for this.”**

Ink gave him a curious look, “Really?”

Error smiled sheepishly, **“C’mon, you trust me right?”**

Ink felt himself wanting to hide behind his scarf, Error had such pretty eyes. Such pretty, trusting, sweet eyes... Shit, he forgot to respond, “Yeah, I trust you.”

Error smirked, **“Then shut them peepers, Squid.”**

Ink giggled, closing his eyes, “Heheh, okay, okay.” He heard Error shuffling around and at some point he was sure he felt a soft tugging on his scarf. After a moment there was a bright flash of light, forcing Ink to shut his eyes tighter.

As the light faded he heard Error's voice, **“See? Told ya”**

Ink slowly blinked his eyes open, his eyes adjusting to the light. The first thing he saw was the white floor. Confusion sparked in his mind and Ink slowly looked up to take in his surroundings.

There was... nothing?

Ink’s eyes widened, _‘What? T-there's nothing here?!’_ He clutched his stomach, the feeling of nausea quickly creeping into him. The emptiness- the silence- it was crushing, deafening. _‘Empty- why-? Too quiet, get me out-’_

**“Kinda took me a while to find a place to keep all of the complete stuff, heh,”** he heard Error chuckle from somewhere near him. **“Anyways- woah! Holy crap, Ink, are you okay??”** Error suddenly appeared in his field of vision, his face fraught with worry.

“E-Error- I- empty? Why- I can't-” Ink felt his knees buckle beneath him and he vomited, black ink spilled out of his mouth and splashed onto the floor.

**“Holy shit!! Ink! Hey- uh, it's okay, alright? You can just use your paints and...”** Error trailed off, his eyes widening. It was at this moment that he realized what was missing from Ink’s outfit. What key item was nowhere to be seen.

Ink didn't have his paints.

**“Ink, your paints! Why didn't you- Did you leave them at home??”**

Ink tried to nod, little tears pricking the corners of his eyes, “I-I- h-hgh-” He cut himself off with a groan and tightly cupped a hand over his mouth, little drops of black ink dripping through his fingers.

**“Why would you-?”** Error put a hand on Ink’s back in an effort to comfort him.

  
Ink shook his head, “I-I don’t- I’m sorry-!”

**“Fuck, damnit-”** Error shook his head and tried to get Ink to look at him, **“Ink, hey- look at me, okay?”** Ink looked up at him shakily, the fear and pain in his eyes sending a spike of pain through Error’s soul. His face softened and he patted Ink on the back, **“Oh god- Hey, hey, it's okay, Ink. It's not totally empty in here, okay? There are files, there's you, theres me, its not-”**

Ink suddenly whipped around and seized him tightly in a hug, burying his face into his shoulder and sobbing quietly. Error froze, error messages quickly clouding up his field of vision. Did that really just happen? He tried to blink away the error messages to try and see clearer, but to no avail.

He shook his head,trying to clear his thoughts, **_‘Okay, dude, don't freak out, don't freak out, DON'T FREAK OUT.’_**

His brain was on the fritz, but he could get why Ink was upset, though it was mostly his fault. He knew Ink hated empty places, especially voids like this one. He should have remembered that so something like this wouldn't happen. But why would Ink leave his paints behind? He loved them, his attacks were dependent on them. Hell, Error’d seen times where Ink acted as if they mattered more than life itself to him. So then why leave them behind? Error’s mind swirled with different thoughts, quickly turning his mind into a tornado of confusion and frustration, but among them was a large looming cloud of fear and anxiety.

He didn't like touching, that was plain and simple, it was almost a staple of him as a person. However, there was an exception for Ink (for obvious reasons). It was mostly a question of if beforehand that mattered to him, at least in his mind. Most of the time Ink would ask permission first and usually that would be enough, but sometimes it was Error to be the one to ask for things like hugs and whatnot from Ink, which was perfectly fine too (and it always seemed to make Ink really happy, so that was a plus). Sure, he still got a bit nervous or jumpy when it came to things like playful nudges and things like that, but even then he felt safe because he knew Ink wasn't trying to hurt him.

But this? This was far beyond anything he'd come to be comfortable with.

Error shut his eyes tightly, Ink meant the world to him. And right now, he was hurting. He didn't like seeing the one he loved in pain. What could he do?

The realization finally broke through, Error knew what he had to do. He had done it before, it was really easy. And if anything would help Ink, it would be this.

He took a shaky breath, and after a moment of hesitation slowly wrapped his arms around Ink. He flinched slightly as Ink leaned into his touch, clutching the fabric of his scarf as he sobbed. Error took a few deep breaths in an attempt to slow down the quick-paced thumping of his soul.

A short time passed and Ink’s sobbing seemed to lessen, though his grip on Error hadn't. This appeared to be working, but there was nothing stopping Ink from having to go through all of this again when they broke away... or was there?

Error thought about it for a bit and after a moment moved one arm away from Ink and summoned a circular pattern of bone attacks up from the ground around them, making sure that they were all angled right and far enough away to make the get the effect he wanted. After he was certain that they would suffice, he raised his free hand up to the bottom of his eye socket, summoning the bright cyan strings and pulling them outward and repeating that motion a few times before cutting them off with a small tug. This next part might fuck up his vision for a bit, so he had to be careful about this.

Very carefully he sent the strings upwards, making them wrap around the previous bones, trying to layer them in a way that would suit the purpose. It worked, but it wasn't enough, he'd only covered about a quarter of the top. He sighed quietly and decided to bite the bullet and just keep a constant stream going, it would get things done faster.

And so he set off repeating the process of spooling the strings out from his eye sockets, sending them to wrap around the structure, letting them sag in some places to let light filter through. After what felt like ages, he lowered his hand. This... this would do.

He turned his attention back to Ink who had stopped crying for the most part and patted him gently on the back, **“Ink? You okay?”**

Ink blinked his eyes open and sniffed, noticing how Error's shoulder filled up most of his vision. He smelled nice... Wait-

Ink pulled away suddenly, feeling his face flush, “E-Error! I’m sorry! I-I forgot you- I didn't-”

Error blinked before giving him a nervous smile, **“Hey, its-”**

Ink shook his head, “I'm sorry, I-”

Error held up a hand to silence him, **“It's fine, Ink.”**

Ink blinked in confusion, still looking mildly distressed, “But I thought-?”

**“It's okay, really,”** Error chuckled, waving him off. **“And besides, you doing that gave me some time to fix things up for you, see?”** He gestured around them.

Ink raised an eyebrow and spun in a slow circle to look at the area around them, letting out a small gasp, “Oh my...”

He hadn't noticed, but the light around them had been dimmed, and this was probably large in part due to the large tent-like structure that now surrounded them. What would have been supporting beams had been replaced with long red bone attacks sticking up from the ground all eight or so of them connecting at the top in a cone-like structure. The areas between the bones had been almost entirely filled in with multiple long pieces of bright blue strings that Ink easily recognized as Error’s. It was almost impossible to put a number to how many there might have been, they were strung together and woven in such a way that they almost looked like cloth.

It was incredible.

He turned back to Error, wide eyed, “Error, you...?” He blinked rapidly, giving Error a confused look, “You did all of this... for me?”

Error took a step back, feeling himself get flustered, **“I guess, uh it's no big deal.”**

Ink took a step towards him, smiling softly, “Error that's... really sweet of you.” Ink trailed off before giving Error a close-eyed smile, “...Thank you.”

Error crossed his arms, shrugging, **“It's nothing, really.”**

Ink waved him off, reaching for his hand, “No seriously, thank you, Error. It... It means a lot.”

Error pulled back reflexively, but after a short moment he let Ink rest a hand on top of his. A small smile broke out on his face, everything was so fucking perfect. Everything was finally falling into place, the way Ink was looking at him, the comfortable silence between them as Error made fleeting eye contact, the warm feeling in his chest. It was all going the way he’d hoped it would.

He broke the silence, **“Ink, there's something I want to show you.”**

Ink took a moment to respond, “Oh! Wwwell then- eh, by all means, go ahead!” Ink rubbed the back of his neck nervously, a soft rainbow blush on his cheeks. Error passed him and stood in the middle of the room, doing quick movements in the air with his hands as glowing holographic boxes appeared and disappeared. He sighed quietly, his breath catching in his throat on a bit of ink, making him cough. Ink blinked in realization, “Hey, uh, I didn't get any stains on you, did I?”

Error turned his head to look at him, **“Hm? Oh no, it's fine, don't worry ’bout it. It'll wash out eventually anyways.”** He said, patting his scarf with one hand, the dark splots of black ink stood out against the blue fabric. Error gave him a smile before he turned back to what he was doing.

Ink chuckled, “’Kay, just checking, heh. Wouldn't want anybody to think... um...” He trailed off. Why’d he say that? Where was he even going with it?

**“...that we were fighting again?”** Error finished for him, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

“N-no!” Ink yelped suddenly.Error turned to look at him and he stuttered, “I- I mean people get weird ideas y’know? Like uh...” He trailed off and lowered his head in defeat, “I'm sorry- I don't know what I'm talking about or where I was going with that. Sorry for being dumb.”

**“Hey, you're not dumb!”** Error retorted a bit angrily.

Ink stood up straight and waved him off, “You don't have to say that, Glitch.” He said with a soft smile.

**“Shut your yaps, I won't let you bully yourself,”** he said in a protective tone. Ink smiled slightly and Error chuckled, **“Only** ** _I_** **can do that, you rainbow asshole!”**

Ink giggled and stuck out his tongue in mock offense, “Mmm!”

Error snorted in amusement and went back to what he was doing. A few clicks and swipes later, he found it. He looked to Ink again, his excitement quietly growing, **“Ya might wanna take a step back for this, its real fuckin’ bright.”** Ink nodded and took a few steps backwards.

Error double tapped the box in front of him and took a few quick steps back as a bright glowing blue orb appeared in front of the hovering boxes. The two watched as the orb began to shift a change at a fast rate. Different parts of it flowed and stretched out like liquid quickly making it change shape. After a moment, it looked like a sort of human-shaped silhouette. After a bright flash, a figure hovered in midair, it almost looked like it was lying down while staying completely vertical.

The figure itself looked like a human, a Frisk to be more precise. And like all AU Frisks, they were a bit different than the OG, this one having mostly monochrome colors instead of saturated yellows, pinks, and blues. Their hair was brown and their skin was a grayed white. Instead of a pink and blue sweater they wore a plain white t-shirt and a light gray bandana wrapped around their neck, golden heart-locket poking out from under it. They wore pants instead of shorts, the pants being a dark navy blue. Their shoes were white and looked pretty standard.

They seemed asleep, as if they'd been taken right out of the beginning of their AU’s timeline. Like they’d just fallen down.

Ink’s breath caught and he covered his mouth with his hand, “O-oh my...”

**“I've been working on this for days, and I only finished it last night.”** That was a lie, he finished it in the late yesterday afternoon, but he wasn't gonna tell Ink that. **“This isn't nearly as good as anything you've made, but I think it's okay.”** Error chuckled, **“I mean, technically this whole project isn't even mine, heh. It belongs to Cross, all this stuff... But I think it's like a puzzle, y'know? I didn't make it, but I put all the pieces together to make something that looks pretty cool. L-least I think so, heh...”** He looked to Ink with a proud smile, **“So, what do you think?”**

But Ink wasn't smiling.

In fact, he looked absolutely mortified.

Error's smile quickly vanished, replaced by a look of concern, **“Ink?”**

Ink’s eyes were flickered between so many different shapes and colors that they all blurred together. He looked at Error with a look of confusion and fear, “Error, you- how is this-?”

**“Is something wrong?”**

“Error, I-” Ink let out an overwhelmed sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “L-look I know this is gonna be hard for you to hear, but you need to get rid of this-” he gestured to the Frisk and the hologram files behind them- “-all of this.”

Shock pierced through Error and he took a step back, **“W-what?”**  
  


Ink shook his head worriedly, “Everything this kid, their AU- they're supposed to be dead, Error!” 

**“I-I don't understand,”** his mind was racing, what was Ink going on about?

“Error, please- you have to listen to me!” He put his hands on Error's shoulders, sending a small shock through the others body as panic grew in Ink’s eyes. “AUs like this- ones that were destroyed by their creators aren't _meant_ to come back! Toying with things like this could unearth something horrible- something that could impact the whole Multiverse!”

Error’s concern was quickly turning to irritation, **“But I can't do that, it's not my-”**

Ink interrupted him, “Error, you _have_ to destroy these things! It's too dangerous to keep them all in one place!”

Error roughly shoved Ink’s hands off of him, **“How do you even know all of this-?”**

“Its-” Ink sighed, shaking slightly, “...I-I can't tell you, you just _have_ to trust me!”

Error's mind was racing, his soul was pounding- concern and irritation quickly turned into boiling rage in his mind. How could Ink say that? He had no idea how long this had taken him- how many sleepless nights he'd spent making sure it all looked right! He did all of this for him- all of it! If it weren't for Ink he wouldn't have even agreed to help Cross with this shit in the first place!

Error gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as he yelled, **“IF YOU WANT THIS AU DEAD SO BAD WHY DON'T YOU JUST KILL IT YOURSELF, INK?!”**

Ink gasped quietly in shock and backed away from Error, his eyes turning to sparks in shades of blue before he went silent.

The realization of what he'd just said struck Error and he reached out and hand to try to comfort him, **“I-Ink, I-”**

Ink took another step back, tearing up, “S-so that's how it is, huh? I- I thought you would understand!”

Error shook his head, **“Ink, I didn't mean-”**

Ink hugged himself, tears dripping down his cheeks, “You made a promise to me, remember? Y-you said you wouldn't bring it up.”

**“I-It just slipped out! I swear I-”**

“YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T BRING IT UP!” Ink yelled, crying. He lowered his head, muttering, “I... I trusted you.” He sniffled before looking back up at him, his eyes blazing red, “I _trusted_ you!”

**“Ink, please I-”**

“Shut up! Just shut up, Error!” Ink snapped at him before sobbing quietly. After a moment he looked back at Error and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, “I... I’m going home. Don't follow me.” He turned his back to Error and stepped into the black puddle he’d made earlier.

Error dashed after him, trying to grasp his shoulders in a hug, **“Ink, wait-!”**

But it was no use, Ink quickly melted into the puddle and vanished.

Error was silent for a minute as he hugged the air. He took a step back before collapsing down onto his knees, his hands slowly creeping up to his face as the reality of his situation set in.

**“What...what have I done...?”** he whispered, small tears forming in his eyes.

**“WHAT HAVE I DONE?!”**

Error hit himself in the head with his hand, **“God- I can't just keep my mouth shut, can I?!”** he shouted, tears dripping from his eyes. He growled in frustration and banged a fist on the floor, flinching as it sent a shock of pain through his arm.

**“D-dammit...”** he whispered, clutching his arm in pain and waiting for the pain to subside..

It hurt. A lot.

But... he deserved it didn't he? Error was a horrible person, and horrible people deserve punishment, don't they?

After a moment, Error slowly raised his arm high above his head, again, balling his hand into a fist and taking a deep breath. He held his breath, hesitating before slamming his fist down on the ground, a cry of pain forcing its way out of his mouth before he could suppress it. He clenched his eyes shut and grit his teeth, tears streaming in small rivers down his cheeks. The pain surged through his arm in tingling waves and slowly faded after a moment.

It had gone far too quickly for Error.

Error didn't know how long he had been knelt there, hitting his hand down on the ground and tensing from the pain. After some time he started losing count of how many times he’d done it, though, that might have been because his mind has more important things to focus on.

It was at times like these that Error more than longed to go find an AU to destroy, but he knew that if he tried to do anything like that it would only make things worse. He silently cursed himself for being like this, why couldn't he deal with himself like a normal person?

Maybe if he did that he would have more friends. People wouldn't hate him as much. He wouldn't just keep hurting the people who care about him. He wouldn't keep ruining his own friendships. He wouldn't just be known as the dirty, world-destroying glitch that nobody likes.

Error stopped and took a deep breath, sitting up straight, ignoring the wetness in his arm and pulling out his phone. He ignored the time and notifications, opening it quickly and dialing a number. The dial-up tone played as he waited for a response.

_Plrrrrrrrrr....plrrrrrrrrr....plrrrrrrrrr....plrrrrrrrrr...._

There was a click as the person on the other end of the line picked up, **“Wow, that was fast. You miss me or something?”**

**“Shut up, is your offer still standing?”**

He could almost hear the other person smirk over the phone, **“Eager are we? Heh, I knew I could count on you.”**

**“So that's a yes?”**

**“Depends on your answer, is it a yes or a no?”**

**“Yeah, I... I've decided,”** Error sighed. **“...I'll join you.”**

**“...Great.”**

_**~ ~ ~** _


	24. Chapter 14: The Boy With The Silver Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kinen introduces Dream to his guide up the mountain, but something about him is off. He's abrasive but strangely quiet. It might be teenage angst thats making him act strange, but what if its something more? 
> 
> WARNING: Violent Fight Scene and Possible Ableism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: i'm gonna be titling the chapters from now on because yes and also because you cant stop me >:3 i might go back and give older chapters names too (emphasis on "might"), along with re-numbering them like i've been doing the last few chapters.
> 
> also i think its very funny that the previous chapter was rejoicing my return and then i straight up vanished again ajhsgjhsgdjdhghsjfdghs. partly because i totally forgot i had this fic on ao3 and forgot to update it along with the wattpad version so this is late by a lot lmAO-
> 
> whatever- i hope you enjoy this chapter for all its worth!  
> -splatt

The knocking sounded out again and Kinen jumped up from her seat, "Coming!" She called over her shoulder, hopping up and hurrying to the front door, stopping briefly in the dining room. "You just about done?"

Dream abruptly stood up, nearly knocking over his chair, "Yeah, uh- Should I-?" He gestured to his plate.

Kinen waved him off, "Just leave it, I'll clean up later."

Dream nodded, "Oh, okay! I'll be over in a sec,"

"Cool, cool," Kinen hurried to the front door, unlocking and opening it with a smile. "Ethan! It's great to see you, come on in!"

The floorboards creaked as a teenage boy steeped inside. He was a fair bit shorter than Kinen, with taupe skin and scruffy, dark brown hair. He had a sculpted face, thin nose, and narrow lips. He was wearing a faded yellow shirt, the sleeves ragged and torn in many places, along with a faded pair of dark blue jeans, with large holes torn at the knees where the fabric was wearing thin. His worn boots were a light gray color, the bottoms mudstained and scuffed up. Interestingly enough, there were little scars scattered all over his arms and legs, shaped like the nicks and scratches one would get after hiking in the woods. But what was most intriguing about him were his eyes, they were unlike any Dream had ever seen on a human before.

They were a piercing silver, hollow and devoid of emotion. His expression was blank, not even so much as a smile appeared on his face when Kinen set a hand down on his shoulder.

Kinen gestured to Dream, speaking cheerfully, "Ethan, this is Dream, I'm sure you're well aware of who he is, hehe." She then gestured to Ethan, "Dream, this is Ethan, our stone-eyes from the prophecy, as well as your guide up the mountain."

Dream made eye contact and noticed that, contrary to Kinen's statement, the color of the boy's eyes was far from the flat gray color of stone. They were sharp and silvery, like a polished blade.

Dream gave a nervous smile and offered out his hand, "Hey, Ethan! It's nice to meet you!"

Ethan looked down at his hand before shaking it, "...Charmed." His voice was like his eyes, cold and lacking any emotion. It sent a small chill down Dream's spine.

Kinen let the silence linger for a moment before she spoke, "....Well before I see you two off on your _grand quest,_ I just wanna make sure that, Dream, you've got everything you need on you?"

Dream blinked in surprise. He'd nearly forgotten about the whole quest business he was partaking in (not that he had really agreed to it anyway). Dream nodded, "Oh um, yeah I guess, let me just go upstairs and get the rest of my things," He said quickly, jabbing a thumb upwards with a nervous chuckle.

Kinen smiled and nodded, "Cool, we'll be waiting!"

Kinen let him by as he went up the stairs, watching him as he made his way up, rounded the corner and vanished from her line of sight. A moment after she heard the door creak as it was nudged closed.

Kinen sighed a bit loudly, the tension in her shoulders relieving briefly as she took a deep breath. She set her jaw and turned to Ethan, putting a hand on his shoulder and making sure he was making eye contact with her. The boy didn't react much in the slightest, not much more than a slight jolt when she touched him. Kinen furrowed her brow. He was less than human. It was no wonder his parents rejected him.

"Alright, you little freak, you listen to me and you listen good-" she hissed- "-I don't care about you or your pathetic little sob story of a life, this is your purpose. Your destiny. Your top priority is to get him up that mountain as quickly as possible so that he can do what he needs to to save us from the shit in that forest." Kinen tightened her grip on him, "And if I find out that he got so much as a scratch on his body, kid, I will personally make your life more of a living hell than it already is...!"

The boy did not respond. In fact, he didn't seem the slightest bit rattled by her threat, nor her snide comment. Her smirk dropped and Kinen felt anger start burning in her chest. Nothing? Shameful, truly shameful. Everyone should be afraid of her! She was the most powerful person in the whole damn world! How dare this broken little shrew not be the slightest bit afraid of her! ...Though, she should have expected as much from something as non-human and empty as him.

Kinen pulled him closer to her face, "...You better make sure that everything goes as planned, Darkslayer. I know how to hurt whatever human pieces still exist inside that body of yours. I know what you are. I could let all of them know what you've been doing. And plus, I still have _her,_ " Kinen sneered.

The boy inhaled sharply, an albeit subtle sound, but a sound nonetheless. A sound she could still hear. A sign that he was still vulnerable. Still human. Still _weak._

A smirk crept back onto her face, "Do I make myself clear?"

The boy nodded slowly, a bit of his unkempt hair falling into his eyes as he did so.

She let go of him with a shove, "Good. Now stay here, I have to do something." She turned and headed back into the kitchen, leaving him alone at the bottom of the stairs.

"...Yes, ma'am." He muttered, lowering his head and leaning against the wall.

~ ~ ~

Dream sighed. Nothing had gone as planned. He'd been practically dragged by his ankles into a quest to save a village full of people he didn't know, only met _one_ person who knew him when he was younger, and he still wasn't any closer to figuring out who he was. Lying about what he was going to do was probably the worst mistake he had ever made in his life, and that was saying something.

Impulses, impulses, impulses. Giving in to impulses was Ink's thing! Dream almost couldn't believe himself. He's supposed to be the one with self control! He's supposed to be the one who thought things through! Yet the _one_ time where impulse control mattered he just _couldn't help_ himself!

_'Good job, Dream,'_ he thought. _'You're stuck in this place with no friends, no way out, a whole quest to complete, not to mention whatever the hecks going on with that kid. God, I'm so dumb, why cant i just leave things where they are? Why do I have to make everything so difficult for myself?! Ugh....'_

Dream huffed. He knew that _now_ was not the best time to beat himself up over all of this, but he couldn't help it. He was just a person! Not a god or some prophesied savior or anything like that! He was self conscious, anxious, and not very good at thinking of solutions when he was this stressed out. How can anyone expect him to handle something like this?

  
He could probably handle it if he had Cross with him.

...

Dream turned to the nightstand and opened the top drawer. Was it any use to bring his phone with him? There wouldn't be any service and it was dead anyways, it would be completely and utterly useless... but it _was_ a link back home. A link to Cross.

He hesitantly picked up his phone and stuffed it into his pocket.

Dream spun in a slow circle as he looked around the room. Everything felt so weird. Like a dream you can't forget or a face you can't quite remember. Was any of this even real? It had to be. No, it was real. Everything here was real. The village, the tree, the forest, all of it was real. There are real people suffering here. He can't just turn a blind eye and leave them to suffer like this.

Dream took a deep breath. He shouldn't linger too long.

He headed downstairs, noticing Ethan leaning against the wall at the bottom of the stairs without Kinen. As he walked down the stairs, the boy turned around to look at him, his eyes were so chilling. There was no malice behind them, but there wasn't any warmth behind them, either. It almost made Dream wonder... No, that would be rude, plus it's not that important anyways.

He put on a nice smile, "Hey, Ethan! How are you doing?"

Ethan shrugged blankly, "...Fine."

Dream gave him a slightly awkward thumbs up, "Cool! Do you know where Kinen is?"

"I'm over here!" Kinen's voice echoed from the kitchen. After a moment she walked out of the kitchen, holding a wicker basket with a small cloth tucked over top of it. The smell of bread wafted from the basket and Kinen smiled, "Since you guys will be gone for a few days, I just figured I'd give ya a lil' somethin-somethin' to snack on." She held the basket out to him.

Dream blinked in surprise, taking the basket in one hand, "Oh! Wow, Kinen, that's so sweet of you!"

She made a waving motion with her hand, blushing slightly, "It's nothing really, I feel it's the least I can do for you, heh."

Dream chuckled a little, "Well, it's still nice of you to do that for us, so thank you."

Kinen smiled and nodded quietly. An awkward silence crept into the conversation.

"Wwwelp, I think it's about time that I sent you two on your way!" Kinen said a bit awkwardly, going to open the door for them.

Dream jolted a bit and nodded, "Oh yeah, right."

She motioned to the door, "Well good luck you two!"

Dream let Ethan go first, giving Kinen a quick smile before following, "Thank you, have a good day!"

"Safe travels!" Kinen called before closing the door.

Dream stood on the porch for a moment before walking down the stairs to catch up with Ethan, who was waiting for him at the front gate.

"H-hey!" He stuttered, "Thanks for waiting for me."

Ethan shrugged, refusing to meet Dream's eyes, "...No problem." He opened the gate and walked down the path toward the street.

"Cool beans," Dream said, giving a thumbs up as he let out a soft sigh and following him down the path.

As the two walked, the silence between them quickly became overbearing. Why did he have to be a teenager and not an adult? He could handle adults, heck, he could handle kids, too. But teenage humans were so unpredictable! Those hormones made them into ticking time bombs, touch the wrong wire and then _boom!_ Death.

But still, awkward silences were the bane of Dream's existence.

He cleared his throat, "So uh, what kind of books do you like to read?"

Ethan shrugged a bit, "I like horror books, complex mysteries are pretty good too."

"Oh, neat. Y'know-" Dream said, trying to match his stride- "-I personally enjoy those cute animal-adventure books. Ever read any of those?"

Ethan shook his head, "No, I don't read those books. They're way boring, plus they're way too childish for me."

"Oh..." Dream said, feeling a little hurt. He should have figured that a teenage boy who looks like he could eat a kitten wouldn't enjoy those kinds of books, but it still hurt. It wasn't like he wasn't tough or anything, he just didn't like reading a lot of other books because they're all so high-stakes and he, a grown adult monster, can barely handle a lost puppy.

Walking down the street, Dream spotted the ginger brown hair of a certain someone he knew. He gasped (maybe a little too excited) and dashed over, "Hey, Lacie!"

Lacie turned around, a crate of turnips in her arms. She smiled and gave him a cheerful nod, "Dream! Fancy seeing you here, how ya doin'?"

He nodded, "I'm doing good, it's nice to see a familiar face." He noticed the crate in her hands, "What do you have there?"

Lacie perked up a bit, "Hm? Oh, just some turnips from the garden, I'm headed to the market to try and get some silver coins outta them. If I'm smart about it I might even be able to squeeze some gold coins out of old Mrs. Blackstone." She said with a smirk before shifting the crate to one arm and holding up a finger and putting a goofy face, "A true Thorne always stays sharp,' that's what my dad says." Dream chuckled a bit and Lacie shrugged, "Enough about me, where you headed?"

"Oh, well actually me and Ethan are headed to the mountain to do this quest-thing," Dream said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Lacie blinked, "Ethan...?" Her eyes trailed to look behind Dream, quickly noticing Ethan standing not too far away from the two of them, arms crossed and a blank expression on his face.

Dream noticed the two of their gazes lingering on the other, with Lacie's seeming timid and somewhat apologetic and Ethan's seeming cold and somewhat fleeting.

Dream broke the silence, "...Do you two know each other?"

Lacie opened her mouth to speak but Ethan interrupted her, "No, we don't know each other."

"O-oh, sorry. It's just the way you were looking at each other I-I thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong!" Ethan snapped, raising his voice for the first time since Dream had met him, making Dream flinch.

Ethan's eyes seemed to reflect the sunlight with bitter frustration, but his expression was only slightly angered. A short moment passed and Dream straightened up and coughed into his hand awkwardly, "W-well, we best get going now! Good luck with your turnips, Lacie!" He gave a half-hearted wave.

Lacie seemed to snap out of a daze as she jolted and returned the gesture, "O-oh! Thanks, you too!"

"Cool, let's go," Ethan said, a cold tone in his voice as he turned his back on them, leaving Dream to quickly follow after him with fleeting goodbyes and well-wishes.

The two decided (or rather Ethan decided) it would be better to stick to a more concealed path out of the village, sticking to back alleys and shadowy pathways. If Dream weren't afraid of the kid snapping at him he would have tried to strum up more conversation, though it seemed Ethan wouldn't be speaking to him unprompted.

Before much time had passed, they found themselves far out of town amongst grassy pains. Ethan came to a sudden halt at what must've been the start of the forest path, and Dream had to dig his heels into the dirt to avoid crashing into him.

Ethan raised an eyebrow at him, and Dream chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head, "Boy, y-you really stop on a dime there, don't you?" Ethan blinked, turning back to the forest without a response.

Dream followed his gaze. A worn and beaten path led into dense underbrush and the thick trunks of the trees, but that didn't surprise Dream, even though logically they shouldn't have been that thick right at the forest line. Still, the shadows loomed ominously, and he couldn't help but hesitate, taking a step back. "Th-this this place is pretty creepy, h-huh?"

Ethan scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Didn't expect a god as the 'Golden Angel' would be this much of a coward. It's just trees, nothing scary. Come on, we've got a schedule to keep." Ethan walked down the path, giving Dream a small nudge on the shoulder as he did and he jumped, mustering up a tiny glare and rubbing his arm as he walked forward.

The forest didn't get any less scary when he was in it, but at least the shade kept him cool. Somewhat rhythmic breaks in the heavy canopy letting warm patches of sunlight pierce in through the dark shadows, bringing warmth and light to all it touched. The twittering of forest creatures filled the air around them, like a constant chatter between different minds. Ravens and songbirds fought for dominance of the canopy, cicadas and crickets harmonized as they went about their days, and the nearby trickle of a stream hidden by brush and trees sang, accompanied by the gentle croaking of frogs.

Meanwhile the two walked in silence, Dream padding along in footsteps he couldn't see. The silence was deafening.

_'Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea-'_

"Y-you know, my husband drags me on hikes sometimes," he began, noticing how Ethan sighed in annoyance and deciding to ignore it. "And every time, I think, 'Man, this path is the same as the last one!' but..." He trailed off, staring into the shadows as though they might provide some sort of explanation. A faceless animal answered his gaze with a reptilian chitter and he quickly looked away, "I-I...I feel like I've been here before."

Ethan huffed, beginning to walk faster. Dream hurried to catch up as Ethan spoke, "Yeah, well, forests are weird and like you said, they're all the same. Besides it's not important, and we're almost at my camp anyway." Dream frowned but didn't say anything, continuing to walk in footsteps that weren't there.

A branch snapped ahead of them and Ethan stopped abruptly, making Dream nearly crash into him a second time.

Dream stepped back, "Whats-"

Ethan held up a finger to silence him, "Shh!"

Dream huffed and crossed his arms, "Okay, kid, I can tell you don't like me, but you're being kind of-"

Ethan cut him off, "No, seriously, be quiet! I heard something!"

Dream opened his mouth to argue, but a second snapping of branches made his mouth snap shut. He squinted, trying to locate where the sound was coming from in the dark shadows of the underbrush. Leaves crinkled overhead with a soft breeze, sending chills down dreams spine as they both watched, tense. Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out a sharpened tactical knife with a chipped blade.

A soft hissing rang out from a bush on his left and Ethan slashed the knife in its direction, earning a loud hiss as a dark shape shot out from the brush, just barely missing them and crashing into a nearby tree. Dream shrieked in fear, stumbling back as Ethan shoved him out of the way and held the knife out defensively.

"W-what is that thing?!" Dream yelped as the creature hissed at Ethan who jabbed his knife towards it.

The creature was the size of a large dog, with a snake-like body and arms that branched out into large wings. Its head was adorned with curved horns like those of an antelope, along with a frill of spines leading down its forehead and along its neck, with only thin veils of skin connecting them together on its neck. Its eyes were dark, cold, unseeming. They had no feeling behind them, no motive, not even one of an animal fighting to survive. They were empty. Cold. Lifeless.

"It's a Skybis-" Ethan said briskly- "-These things have a nasty bite, so just stay out of its line of sight, I should be able to take it down."

"A-are you sure you can take that thing down with just that knife?" Dream asked, eyeing the blade warily, "That things huge and you're-"

"Shut up, I'm trying to focus!" Ethan yelled, annoyed, making Dream quickly shut his mouth.

The creature swayed from side to side, baring its crooked fangs at Ethan and hissing, flicking its wings in anger. Ethan moved to strike it but the Skybis dodged the attack, nearly causing Ethan to crash into the bushes behind it. The Skybis snarled at him, its tail flicking as it tasted the air. After a short moment it slowly turned to look at Dream, baring its teeth in what could have been a grin.

Dream felt frozen in place, his whole body was telling him to run, to flee, but the gaze of the creature petrified him in his place. He couldn't move if he wanted to.

"Wh-what do I do?" he whispered, feeling his hands shaking.

"Stay still," Ethan replied quietly.

Dream felt like arguing about that, but considering he had no idea what this thing could do, he opted to keep his mouth shut.

The Skybis opened its mouth in a gleeful hiss, only to yowl in pain and whirl around to hiss at Ethan,who had cut it between its shoulder blades, quickly slashing his knife across the snout when it reared its head at him. The Skybis screeched again, backing away from him and covering its nose with a wing.

It bumped into Dream and suddenly perked up, sliding back from him with gleaming fangs. Realizing what was about to happen, Dream held up his arms like a shield to protect himself and closed his eyes as the creature struck with open jaws. His body tensed as he heard a wet crunching sound as its fangs bit into his arm.

...It bit into his arm didn't it? It had to have, right? But then why wasn't he feeling any pain? Dream slowly opened one eye and gasped in horror.

"E-Ethan!" Dream yelped.

"Nnngh- move! M-move dammit!" Ethan huffed.

It seemed that in a split-second, Ethan had jumped in front of him and taken the brunt of the Skybis' bite, its fangs now sunken into his left forearm and blood splashed across his skin. Ethan held the knife cutting into the creature's throat as the two were locked in a staring contest. Ethan grunted and pushed the knife further into its neck and the creature hissed again, biting down harder, causing a yelp to escape the boy's mouth.

Ethan clenched his teeth, "Go, now!"

Dream quickly scrambled out of the way, putting distance between himself and the creature. The Skybis seemed to notice him moving away and made motions towards him, hissing and flapping its wings. Dream summoned his bow and an arrow to shoot it, but Ethan got in the way, slashing the knife away from the Skybis' throat. The Skybis uttered a guttural screech and flapped its wings, wetly hissing at him. Ethan dodged it as it struck the air with fury, small drops of blood gleaming in the air as they flew off his arm. The two were quickly initiated into a dance of danger, a tango with death, of which only one would emerge victorious.

Ethan caught Dream's eye in passing and yelled to him, "Why are you just standing there?! S-shoot it!"

"I can't get a clear shot!" Dream yelled back, trying to aim at the creature as it dodged and weaved through Ethan's attacks.

Suddenly the Skybis leapt at Ethan, teeth bared. Ethan only barely dodged the attack, one of the Skybis' horns catching on his shirt and tearing a gash through it.

"Bastard, I just fixed that!" Ethan shouted at the Skybis, who uttered a hissy laugh in response. Ethan yelled to Dream again, "Look, I don't care if you s-shoot me- just shoot it!"

Dream wanted to argue with that statement, seeing as the kid was already bleeding heavily and he was aiming at a moving target, but seeing as he didn't have a choice, he took a deep breath and took aim.

One shot. He only had this one shot, and if he missed and hit the kid, Dream knew he'd never forgive himself. Deep breaths. He was shaking all over. A cold breeze blew by and all other noise from the forest was tuned out.

One chance. One mistake. One monster. One wrong move.

Dream clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

He should have stayed home. He shouldn't have lied. He shouldn't have lied to Cross. He shouldn't have gone through that portal.

He shouldn't have gotten up out of bed that day.

Dream let go of the arrow.

_Thunk!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cliffhanger oop-  
> hope y'all are having a good year so far, for as much as its worth. please stay safe with whats going on right now (specifically in the USA). like for the love of god take care of yourselves and stay safe.  
> also online schools starting back up for me and you know what that means! i'll have less free time to write!! yay!!!  
> whatever, have a good day or night, you guys!
> 
> Stay fafe and stay odd, peace out!  
> -splatt


	25. cH4pt3r_n0t_f0uNd_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> https://friendly-neighborhood-furry.tumblr.com/post/639902135040032768/error404-im4ge-n0t-f0und

/find: (chapter-title)

error. var: "chapter-title" not found.

/find: (lonely.png)

error. var: "lonely.png" not found.

/find: (script.txt)

error. var: "script.txt" not found.

/run: (narrator.pgrm)

error. var: "narrator.pgrm" not found.

/reboot: (TSP.pgrm)

rebooting. . . 

reboot 25% complete.

reboot 50% complete.

reboot 75% complete. 

reboot complete.

/start: (viewer.chr)

viewer.chr is already active. would you like to deactivate?

yes | no

| **no**

/run: (chapter.txt)

running: (chapter.txt)

. . .

You blink and open your eyes. What happened? You cant tell. Everything around you looks exactly the same as it did before. Except...

You notice it now. The place where you usually find the new chapters seems to be broken. It sits in front of you, glitching. The hub look to have been smashed by something rather large, with racked keys and dials being all that remain of the once pristine piece f tech. You don't even know if any of them even work anymore.

Now two options sit in front of you, either try to see if you can make the machine work so you can read the chapter, you can skip it entirely, or just log off of the program entirely. 

. . .

You try to push some of the buttons. When that doesn't work you try fiddling with the various dials to get some sort of reaction, but that doesn't work either. You punch the machine in frustration and sigh, thinking maybe this time if you should skip the chapter and come back when a real update comes out. 

All of a sudden the machine shudders, making concerning loud noises before the screen flickers to life with static. After a moment text appears through the static, accompanied by a pixilated voice. 

**"What are you doing here? Wait- what did you do to me?! "**

You gasp and jump back in surprise. You didn't think this machine would ever talk to you! Much less accuse you of breaking it (on purpose, at least). You open your mouth to defend yourself but it cuts you off.

**"You know what? That doesn't matter- what matters is that you're not supposed to be here! Now go away! "**

You feel a bit offended. You have every right to be here, just like every other time you've visited this story. Who is this machine-voice to deny you to your fanfiction?! You huff and try to speak again, but the voice interrupts you again. 

**"Huh? What is this?"**

The voice goes quiet for a moment before returning. 

**"** **Oh, I see... they made this for you. Hmph, very well then. You can read this, but be warned, viewer, it is not pleasant.**

You tilt your head slightly, your confusion growing. Before you can process much, the screen begins counting down to showing the story and you scramble to tune yourself into the feed.

_**~ ~ ~** _

Anthony never had it easy.

He was the eldest son in a long line of archers, the very best in the village. And because of their greatness, it was of utmost importance to his parents that he be just as great, if not better than them at the skill.

But he had a bit of a problem.

He wasn't. He absolutely sucked at archery.

He failed almost every test they gave him, his grades were less than perfect (and in his family, less than perfect might as well have been a fail as well), and, worst of all, it soon came to light that he would not be bringing them any grandchildren that might salvage the family line.

And so, day after day, year after year, Anthony began to hate himself more and more for disappointing them, for being a failure. It got to the point where his parents' punishments weren't enough for him, and he took it upon himself to make them so.

One failed test, a single cut. One arrow off course, another cut. One misstep during dance lessons, another cut. One wrong move during hunting practice, yet another cut. One girl heartbroken by his horrible secret, one cut more. Cut, cut, cut, until the blood was dripping, staining his perfect bedroom floor.

Felt a little familiar, honestly.

And so every week Anthony would lock himself in his room, make sure that the curtains were drawn and his buck knife was sharpened before he set to work.

He would hear the pitiful noises as he winced and hissed from the pain, the blade slipping through his soft skin. There would be times where he would start to think he'd had enough for one day (perhaps a instinctual defense mechanism, a survival instinct)- but the thoughts were fleeting, only to be buried beneath bitter feelings of resentment as he trudged onwards.

He deserved this. No failure should get to be happy. No failure should get to love. No failure should be allowed to have friends.

No failure like him should get to _live_ -

His buck knife clattered to the floor and Anthony's eyes widened.

The bleeding. It. It wasn't stopping. He rushed to cover the wound and put pressure on it, biting back a scream when sharp pain shot through his body.

Puddles. They were turning into puddles- he was turning into puddles! Draining- draining into little puddles of pride.

It was then that the realization of what had happened finally sunk into Anthony's mind. He had made a mistake. A terrible, horrible mistake. It was one cut too many, too far, too deep. He wasn't coming back from this one.

He slumped down against his bed frame, his vision flickering with the light. through the tears he saw familiar faces. Mother, Father, they were proud of him. The whole village cheered his name. they carried him on their shoulders, showering him with love and affection. The love of his life embraced him in tears, they would be happy for the rest of their lives.

Anthony smiled, "I. I did it. I made them proud... J-Josh I...love y.."

He collapsed onto the floor, eyes glazing over, a smile still soft on his face.

Why was it getting so dark? Had the sun set already? He heard Mother beckoning him for dinner, her tone soft and nurturing.

_'I'll be over in a second, Mother. Your favorite son will be right over... I pro...mise......'_

. . .

The angel sighed softly, it's tone caring and kind, "Dear me, child. That's a nasty way to go, don't you think?"

Anthony nodded slowly, kneeling next to his body as his mother knocked on the door.

The angel set a hand on his shoulder and turned him to look at its face, "Well, I'll tell you what. I can do you a favor, would you like that?"

Anthony looked to the door, listening as his mother pounded harder, her voice muffled through the hazy air.

"I know that you must have unfinished business, and while I can't bring back the dead, I can do the next best thing and give you a new form to do what you must with. You still need to tell someone something correct?"

Anthony nodded, remembering the face of his love.

The angel sighed softly, "I must warn you though, you may lose some of your memories later on. For now though, you should be fine."

Anthony nodded again and looked back at the angel questioningly.

The angel smirked, "You want to know what I want in return, don't you? Clever boy." It chuckled, "In return for my favor, I ask for nothing but your obedient service for as long as I desire. Once it's been long enough and you've done what you need to do, I'll let you pass on to the afterlife." The angel held out its hand, a bright blue glow shining from its palm, "Deal?"

Anthony looked at its hand for a moment before his mother broke down the door to his room in a huff. She opened her mouth to yell, but cut herself off with a shrill scream as she saw his body. She slowly collapsed to the floor before covering her face with her hands, sobbing. After a moment she moved her hands from her face, revealing a version of herself that Anthony had never seen before. One of vulnerability. One of regret. She shakily reached out to shake his shoulder, asking him if he was okay, if he could hear her, begging for any sign that he was okay. She asked him to wake up.

Anthony watches, silent, as she tells him she loves him, that this is never what she wanted, that Father had made it seem like being so hard on him would help him get better. She pulls his body into her arms, ignoring the blood staining her clean green apron, repeating words of comfort as he lay limp in her arms. Anthony heard his father's voice bellow from down the hall and before long he had stormed down the hall to ask what was going on. Quickly he stormed down the hall and into the room to yell, interrupting himself with a scream of terror. 

The angel's voice rings out, still soft as cotton, "I'm sorry, my child, I don't think you'll want to see this."

It waved its hand and Anthony blinked, his parents' forms were getting fuzzier and fuzzier as they yelled at each other, arguing. He looked back to the angel, its expression was somber. Anthony opened his mouth to speak, but no sounds came out. He paused and tried again, only met with silence.

The angel chuckled, "Sorry about that, child. Souls cannot speak in this realm, it's rather annoying isn't it?"

Anthony nodded and motioned to the angel's hand.

"Hm? Oh, eager are we?"

Anthony nodded.

The angel chuckled, extending its hand again, "So it's a deal then?"

Anthony hesitated a moment, turning his head to look at his parents figures. It was hard to make out, but it looked like the argument had escalated. His younger brothers peeked out from around the corner at them before darting back behind the walls and running away. He looked back to the angel, its smile was comforting. It only wanted to help him.

He took the angel's hand and shook it firmly, the blue glow engulfing his hand and quickly turning to fire that held both of their hands. It licked at his wrist and arm, but with no flesh to catch on, he felt no pain.

The angel smiled, "Good, now follow me. I will give you a body so big, strong, and scary that no one will even think of pushing you around again." The angel turned and flexed a wing, tearing open a hole in the world that led to the outside of his home.

Anthony nodded and walked into it, appearing on the other side in his backyard. The sun shone brightly, it would have been a warm day, but he couldn't feel any heat on his skin. That was probably due to the fact that he was dead, though.

He sighed. What happened to the angel? He turned around to look for it, only for it to appear not a few feet away, molding the shadows of the trees as if they were clay. After a moment it took form as a winged creature with a bird-like face with a thin body and a spiked tail. The angel made a pulling motion with its hands and the creature grew in size, its body limp in the air. The people walking by seemed unable to see it, going about their days as normal. It was strange.

The angel sighed a heavy sigh and gestured to it, "There we go, perfect. It should all come easily to you, the features of this body. Come here."

Anthony took a step toward the angel and closed his eyes, feeling himself move through the air and into the body of the creature. When he opened his eyes, he felt different. He was tall, very tall. His hands were clawed talons. His teeth were sharp, like the fangs of a cougar. He was in his new body, he guessed.

"There you are! I must say, I'm proud of myself. You look simply wonderful, my boy!" The angel said happily, clapping its hands. "You must be going soon though, this hiding spell will wear off soon enough."

Anthony nodded and flapped his wings, quickly gaging how he was to fly and shooting up into the sky. As he flew to the house of the boy he had fallen for, something began to occur to him.

He had a new name. Something he knew he must have had, but he didn't know had a name. It felt fitting.

Anxiety. 

Oh, of course.

He was Anxiety.

_**~ ~ ~** _


	26. Chapter 15: An Incredibly Stressful Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my god. i am. so sorry. for being gone this long. shits been real over on my end and i haven't had much creative motivation to do anything on top of not having much personal time anyways.  
> i wont ramble for long, heres the new chapter! i hope you enjoy it :3  
> -splatt

_ Whump! _

Ethan let out a sigh of relief, “Phew... you got it- Wait, were you aiming with your eyes closed?”

Dream poked an eye open, quickly noticing that the Skybis was now lying on the ground, his arrow sticking up from the back of its head and a deep pool of the creature's blood seeping into the dry earth. Ethan shakily stood up, waiting for a reply.

“I, um- no?” he said nervously.

Ethan sighed, “Y’know what? It's fine. We sh- uugh!” He grit his teeth, the muscles in his arm tensing around the bite.

Dream unsummoned his weapons and hurried over, “Oh god- are you okay?”

Small beads of swear rolled down the side of his face, “I wont be if we stay here any longer- fuck!” He cried out when he tried to touch the wound, “C-c’mon, it's just up ahead.”

The two rush off, leaving the Skybis’ carcass behind them. From somewhere nearby, small chirping sounds come from under a leafy shelter, accompanied by little hissy laughs and the slithering of scales.

Dream didn't have much time to take in the surroundings of the camp, seeing as Ethan had made a beeline for a small wooden cabin and he was only left to follow close behind. Ethan flung the door open and stumbled over to a bed that was tucked into the corner of the makeshift-home, letting out a loud sigh when he sat down and leaned against the wall.

“I'm not gonna be able to do this myself- goddammit!” Ethan cursed, clenching his eyes shut, “O-okay, there should be a book on the desk- the green one. Grab it.”

Dream picked up a slim hardbound book on the small desk in front of one of the two windows, “This one?”

Ethan nodded, “Y-yeah, find page one-hundred-twenty-two, t-there should be something about bites there.” 

Dream nodded and flipped through the pages, quickly realizing it was some sort of bestiary, and then finding the page he needed. Right below a diagram of showing the various growth stages of a Skybis, was information on bites.

Dream looked up to Ethan, “U-um we need dried leaves from a bronze-tree? Where do we get that?”

Ethan nodded to the desk, “U-under the desk, there's a box with some herbs in it. D-damnit! I-I think there should be e-enough in there f-for this.”

Dream nodded again and knelt down to rummage through the box. It was organized, thankfully, with everything being labeled and in small boxes. He grabbed the leaves, along with a stone mortar and pestle to grind them up with. Dream put the leaves into the bowl and tried to work quickly, the leaves crushing quickly into a fine powder. The next step was to add water.

He turned to Ethan to ask, but the kid was already a step ahead of him, kicking a small ceramic flask across the floor for him to pick up. He moved quickly, mixing the water with the leaf-powder until it had a paste-like consistency. Dream read through the instructions again, estimating the time since the bite to be about fifteen minutes. 

Dream picked up the mortar, leaving the stele on the desk and asking, “Where do you keep your bandages?”

Ethan clutched the blankets tightly with his other hand, grunting, “T-trunk!”

Dream nodded, feeling a pang of guilt for Ethan as he went to open the large wooden trunk across from the bed. Sure enough, the bandages were right there, along with various other medical supplies. He grabbed the bandages and the mortar and went to sit down next to Ethan, setting the bandages and mortar down next to him.

Dream took off one of his gloves and tried to put on a comforting tone, “Okay, it says I have to put this stuff on your arm around the bite and then bandage it tightly. This is probably gonna hurt a lot.” 

Ethan shook his head and held his arm out, “I'll be fine- just get it over with!”

Dream nodded hesitantly and scooped some of the paste onto his fingers, noting the cold wet feeling it left on his hands as he rubbed it against Ethan’s skin. This didn't seem to hurt Ethan too much, he let out small hisses of pain, but not much aside from that. When it came time to wrap the bandages, though…

Ethan's shrill screams of pain chilled him to the bone.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!” Dream yelped, “I'm almost done, okay? Just hold on a little longer, kid.” 

Dream wasn't lying, he only had a bit of wrapping left to do. Then again, Ethan wouldn't be able to tell, he had his eyes shut and his head tilted towards the ceiling, blinking back tears. Dream wrapped around one more time and pulled on the bandage to tighten it one last time, flinching as Ethan let out another bone-chilling scream. He tucked the bandage under itself and leaned back.

“There, we’re all done now.” He patted Ethan’s back lightly, “Are you feeling okay?”

Ethan was breathing heavily, tears and sweat dripping off his face in small beads. He rubbed his cheek on his shirtsleeve, avoiding Dream’s eyes as he caught his breath. After a moment he sighed and stood up suddenly, and Dream raised an eyebrow at him in question.

“I’m fine,” he said, ruffling his hair with one hand. “We should go get the-” Ethan couldn't finish his sentence before he tipped over onto the floor.

“Oh goodness!” Dream yelped, rushing to the kids side and turning him so that his face wasn't on the floor, shaking his shoulder gently. “Ethan?! Are you okay? Can you hear me?!”

After a moment Ethan groaned and blinked his eyes open, murmuring, “Wh... what the fuck...?”

Dream let out a sigh of relief, “Ohh thank god, I thought you were dead.”

Ethan pulled himself into a sitting position, being careful not to hit his arm, “What happened?”

Dream gave him a concerned look, “You got up and sort of just? Passed out?”

Ethan looked rather surprised at this revelation, “Wait, really? 

“Yes?? You were saying something about going to get something before you fell over.”

He blinked, “....Oh. Well that's not important- how long was it out?”

“Only a few seconds, I think. Are you feeling okay?” Dream asked.

Ethan shook his head, “...I’m fine, I better go get that basket before something eats all the food in it-”

“Oh no no no no, kiddo,” Dream said, waving his finger like a concerned parent. “If you can't stand up for a few seconds without passing out, there is  _ no _ way I am going to let you go fetch a  _ basket _ in the middle of the  _ death forest.” _

“But-” Ethan tried to protest but Dream cut him off.

“‘But’ nothing! You are staying here and I am going to get the basket for you, along with some water since I noticed the sound of running water nearby when we entered. I'll take care of things for you. Now stay put, okay?” 

Ethan gave him a look that he couldn't quite decipher before relinquishing, “Fine, fine.”

Dream smiled, “Good! I'll be back soon, promise.”

Ethan nodded firmly, and Dream strolled out, glancing side to side briefly before heading back through the camp the way they came in. He couldn’t help but notice the supplies littered throughout. Well, not littered, it was actually quite neat, but there was so much it felt crowded nonetheless. Food, lumber, bundles of clothes…

_ ‘Wow, this camp has everything. How long has he been living here?’  _ Dream wondered as he left camp.

Halfway back down the trial, he spotted the basket.

_ ‘There it is! Oh…’ _

The basket had been pretty much picked apart, the only thing remaining being a few crumbs and an empty water canister that had been torn open - the cap lay a few feet away. Dream picked up the canister, humming in consideration, before deciding to go refill it at the creek he could hear.

He followed the sound of rushing water to a thin creek, and bent down, dipping the canister into the water and whistling to himself as he waited.

Dream heard the snapping of twigs behind him and quickly turned around. He was met with silence and an empty path, only the dark of the forest seemed to stare back at him.

“Ethan...?” he called out nervously, “I-Is that you? I thought I told you to stay put?”

The shuffling of branches sounded to his right and Dream turned again, a new sense of fear creeping into his bones. A loud snuffing sound replied and Dream tensed, summoning an arrow in his hand, feeling himself begin to shake. 

Slowly, the figure of some creature stepped into the light. Though this creature didn't seem to be hostile. Most of its features were concealed by the shadows around it, but he could make out some. 

A pointed snout, off-white scales, blue-tipped feathers that were spread around the face, lower jaw, and chest with large questioning gray eyes. It would be an understatement to say it almost looked like a dinosaur. In all his years of multiversal travel, Dream had never seen anything quite like it. It stepped a bit farther into the light and away from the trees, it must have been several feet tall, the top of its head brushing up against the lower-hanging tree branches. A pair of sleek wings stretched out from its back, white feathers that turned an icy blue at the tips peppered along the wing bones as well. 

It took slow steps towards him, lowering its head as it stared at him with those big gray eyes. Soon it stood across from him on the other side of the creek, its front feet dipping in the creekshore as small fish darted around its claws. 

Suddenly it stepped closer, smelling the air with closed eyes. Dream took a preventative step back, afraid that it was checking to see if he would be any good to eat. However, that didn't happen. Instead, something unexpected occurred when it smelled the air. The feathers on its head began to glow a soft blue color and after a moment it opened its eyes, which had widened in surprise. 

Then it did something Dream didn't understand.

It took a few steps away from him, concern and fear in its eyes. Almost like it was afraid of something. Dream glanced behind him, but there wasn't anything there that wasn't there before. When he looked back, the creature was closer, still staring at him like he was an ancient statue in a city of ruins.

“Wow,” it breathed, “you look just like he said you would…”

“W-what?!” Dream yelped, nearly losing his footing in surprise, “Y-you can talk?!”

The creature blinked in surprise, like it didn't realize it could talk either, “Oh, apple seeds- I’m so stupid!” The creature hit itself lightly on the head with one talon.

Dream was so shocked that he could barely stutter any semblance of a sentence before the creature cut him off again. 

“Gosh, I didn't mean to say that out loud! Sorry!” it said, its voice was sweet and soft, and yet a little scratchy. 

“It's... fine? I didn't even know you could talk, so it's fine.” Dream said awkwardly, trying to reassure the creature with a smile.

“Ahaha, cool.” The creature said, relieved as it quickly glanced at the sky. It must have been around five in the afternoon and the sun had begun to set. The creature perked up “Oh gosh, I gotta fly! Sorry to cut this short, it was nice talking to you, Dream!”

Dream blinked, “What?” The creature flapped its massive wings and lifted into the sky. “Wait! How'd you know my name?! Who are you?!” Dream yelled in confusion. “Come back!”

But the creature must not have heard him as it shot over the trees, flying north and leaving nothing behind but the ripples in the water and tension in the air. 

Dream stood dumbfounded at the creekshore. Did that really just happen?

_ ‘No way, that's insane.’  _ He thought, _ ‘A talking raptor-bird thing is exactly the sort of crap that my dumb anxiety-brain would come up with after all the stuff that happened just now. It couldn't have been real.’ _

Dream bent down to finish filling the water bottle, trying to brush off the strange encounter-hallucination-event that had just occurred. 

It was then that he noticed something drifting down the creek. 

It was a white feather, the tip fading into an icy blue. It was curled in an arch shape, drifting down the creek with the current like any leaf would. Dream quickly picked it up and looked at it closely. It was real, with soft and fluffy fibers that radiated warmth. It glowed softly up at him as he inspected it. 

_ ‘Strange,’ _ he thought,  _ ‘why hasn't it stopped glowing?’ _ Dream thought for a moment and then put the feather down next to him on the shoreline. As soon as it was away from him, it stopped glowing.  _ ‘Weird…’ _

Dream finished filling the canteen with water and capped it, pocketing the feather after a moment of hesitation before starting the trek back to Ethan’s camp.

When Dream got to the cabin (or at least near it) he was a bit nervous. He felt like he should tell Ethan about what had happened, but decided against it. The kid had already had to deal with so much in the past few hours, it would be cruel to burden him with the same confusion he was feeling. 

When he got close to the cabin, dream heard a sound coming from the inside of the cabin. It sounded like…..crying?

_ ‘Somethings wrong.’ _ the thought shot through Dream's mind, flipping some switch in the back of his mind that gave him a new sense of speed and strength that he never knew he had. He rushed to the cabin and opened the door.

The inside of the cabin was almost entirely the same, apart from Ethan, who was sitting on the bed, his arms wrapped around his knees and his head tucked behind his legs, crying. 

“Ethan! Oh god, what happened?” Dream yelped, rushing to his side, “Are you alright? Oh, this is my fault, I shouldn't have just left you-”

“N-no, it's... not that,” Ethan’s muffled voice replied. 

Dream stopped and raised an eyebrow, “Oh. What's wrong then?”

Ethan lifted his head to look at Dream before he took a shaky breath and said, “I-I… I don't get it. I-I thought you were selfish a-and dumb- I hated you a-and I blamed you for e-everything that happened, a-and- b-but you’re-!” Ethan cut himself off with a shaky breath before continuing, “......Y-you’re just nice to me? For no reason? A-and I keep insulting you and being mean to you a-and calling you n-names and stuff b-but you just- y-you keep trying- trying to... trying to be my friend... Why? Why are you doing this?”

Dream was taken aback by this sentiment. He slowly sat down next to Ethan on the bed and put a hand on his shoulder, hesitating when Ethan flinched at the touch. Dream could feel his emotions, a bitter dragging despair that was mixed with cold spikes of confusion and desperation. The feelings were dull though- a sign that they'd been felt many times before. Dream could tell there was something deeper going on behind the curtain, but he put it aside. 

“Ethan,” he began, “why wouldn't I?”

Ethan didn't answer, only shuddering as another round of sobs overtook him. 

Dream took a deep breath, “...Look, I don't know what you've been through, and I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I do, but I am so,  _ so _ sorry for all of this stuff having happened to you. You’re just a kid, you shouldn’t have to go through pain like this because of a prophecy, especially not one as frankly stupid as this one. All that responsibility and stress on your shoulders, it isn't fair,” Dream said, knowing what it was like to be a kid with a very grown-up job to do. “No kid should have to go through that. Especially not a good kid like you,” he added. 

“Y-you…” Ethan said, teary-eyed, “You think I'm a good kid?”

“Of course I do!” Dream replied, rubbing Ethan’s back in small circular motions, “There are some really bad people out there, believe me, I've met some of them, heh.” He paused for a beat before continuing, knowing he had to choose his words wisely, “I haven't met that many kids, and even then I haven't met that many bad kids, but even I can tell that you're not one of them. I know that behind those walls and standoffish demeanor, deep down in your soul, is a good kid who's just been through some really rough times.” 

Dream wanted to say more, things he wished he could have said to his past self during similar times,  _ ‘None of this is your fault,’ _ or  _ ‘I know its hard, I’m sorry it has to be this way,’ _ and other things along those lines, but he didn't get a chance to before Ethan suddenly grasped him in a hug and sobbed quietly into his shoulder. Dream blinked, a bit surprised by the gesture. After a beat he hugged back warmly, whispering words of comfort to the crying kid. 

Dream could feel his pain. As much as he tried to hide behind insults and mean looks, Ethan was hurting. 

It was then that we made a promise. One that wasn't spoken aloud but still held the same weight. Dream vowed that whatever happened, no matter the consequences, he would do everything he could to protect Ethan. To make sure that he would be safe and healthy after all of this. To take care of him as best he could so that he could live his life happily, because clearly his real parents had failed at doing so for him. It was up to Dream now. 

Ethan pulled away suddenly, wiping his cheek with his hand, “I-it's getting late, we should probably go to sleep.”

Dream blinked and glanced out the window, sure enough the sun was setting, casting soft orange, yellow, and pink hues in swirls across the sky. “Shoot, you're right.”

Ethan stood up slowly, “Here, you can sleep on my bed.”

Dream shook his head, “Oh no, kiddo. You're the one with the injury here, you need it more. And hey, I’ll be fine, I've slept in  _ way _ worse conditions than this.”

Ethan protested, “But I can't just let you sleep on the floor, you-”

Dream interrupted, sitting Ethan back down, “I insist. Besides, you deserve a good night's rest, don't worry about me.” He stood up and patted him on the head gently before going to clean things up from the frantic scramble that was the first-aid process.

Ethan nodded slowly, running a hand through his hair. He didn't understand any of it. All this time he’d thought the savior/angel/whatever would be a selfish prick who didn't care about anybody but himself. But after today? He didn't know what to think anymore. 

Dream seemed so nice and caring and he seemed to really mean what he said but... he didn't get it. People weren't nice just,  _ because. _ People only care about themselves, or at least, that was what he told himself to believe. 

He knew it wasn't true. He had met people who were naturally kind, who meant the things they said. Who loved him before things went bad, who called him by a cute nickname with her shiny green eyes and pretty ginger hair and soft voice and warm hugs-

Ethan shook his head, _‘Nope, nope! I'm too tired- I can't think of anything, I'm just that tired. I'm so tired that I’m gonna go to bed now, that's how tired I am.’_ He kicked off his shoes and tucked himself under the blankets, trying to push the memory out of his mind. He had to lay on his right side to avoid hurting his arm further, which was a bit awkward since that was the direction that Dream was in. He had his back turned to him, putting the trunk back where it was before. Ethan paused for a moment.

“...G’night, Dream,” he muttered.

Dream perked up and turned to smile at him with a soft expression, “Goodnight, Ethan.” 

He tur ned back to what he was doing, not noticing the rare occurrence happening behind him.

Because it was then that, for the first time in a very long time,

Ethan smiled.


End file.
